Dream‑Love
Language:
English
Young Love lies sleeping
In May-time of the year,
Among the lilies,
Lapped in [the]1 tender light:
White lambs come grazing,
White doves come building there;
And round about him
The May-bushes are white.
Soft moss the pillow
For oh, a softer cheek;
Broad leaves cast shadow
Upon the heavy eyes:
There winds and waters
Grow lulled and scarcely speak;
There twilight lingers
The longest in the skies.
Young Love lies dreaming;
But who [shall]2 tell the dream?
A perfect sunlight
On rustling forest tips;
Or perfect moonlight
Upon a rippling stream;
Or perfect silence,
Or [song]3 of cherished lips.
Burn odours round him
To fill the drowsy air;
Weave silent dances
Around him to and fro;
For oh, in waking
The sights are not so fair,
And song and silence
Are not like these below.
Young Love lies dreaming
Till summer days are gone,-
Dreaming and drowsing
Away to perfect sleep:
He sees the beauty
Sun hath not looked upon,
And tastes the fountain
Unutterably deep.
Him perfect music
Doth hush unto his rest,
And thro' the pauses
The perfect silence calms:
Oh poor the voices
Of earth from east to west,
And poor earth's stillness
Between her stately palms.
Young Love lies drowsing
Away to poppied death;
Cool shadows deepen
Across the sleeping face:
So fails the summer
With warm, delicious breath;
And what hath autumn
To give us in its place?
Draw close the curtains
Of branched evergreen;
Change cannot touch them
With fading fingers sere:
Here the first violets
Perhaps will bud unseen,
And a dove, may be,
Return to nestle here.
View text without footnotes
1 omitted by Somervell.
2 Somervell: "can"
3 Somervell: "songs"
Somervell's setting ends with the following repetition of earlier lines: Young Love lies sleeping,
And round about him
The May bushes are white.
Input by Sharon Krebs
Authorship
Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text),
listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive)
by Jean Coulthard (1908-2000)
, "Dream love" [voice and piano], from Christina Songs, no. 2, stanzas 1-3
by Percy Eastman Fletcher (1879-1932)
, "Dream-Love", published 1921. [SATB chorus a cappella]
by Sir Arthur Somervell (1863-1937)
, "Young Love lies sleeping", published 1901, stanzas 1,3,8 [voice and piano], from Love in Spring-Time, no. ?
Date added to the website: 2009-07-12.
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