The shepherd (Anonymous, set by T. Arne) (The Lied and Art Song Texts Page: Texts and Translations to Lieder, mélodies, canzoni, and other classical vocal music)


No more the festive Train I'll join,
Adieu! ye rural sports adieu!
For what alas have griefs like mine,
With pastimes or deights to do?
Let hearts at ease such pleasures prove,
But I am all despair and love.

A well a day! how chang'd am I?
When late I seiz'd the rural reed;
So soft my strains, the herds hard by,
Stood gazing, and forgot to feed.
But now my strains no longer move
They're discord all, despair, and love.

Behold around my straggling sheep
The fairest once upon the lea;
No swain to guide, no dog to keep,
Unshorn they stray, nor mark'd by me.
The shepherds muse to see them rove,
They ask the cause, I answer Love.

Neglected love first taught my eyes,
With tears of anguish to o'erflow;
'Twas that which fill'd my breast with sighs,
And tun'd my pipe to notes of woe.
Love has occasion'd all my smart,
Dispers'd my flock, and broke my heart.

Authorship

Anonymous/Unidentified Artist

Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive)

Thomas Augustine Arne (1710-1778)

Added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.

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