The rolling wheele (Spenser, set by M. Greene) (The Lied and Art Song Texts Page: Texts and Translations to Lieder, mélodies, canzoni, and other classical vocal music)


 The rolling wheele that runneth often round,
 The hardest steel in tract of time doth teare:
 And drizzling drops that often doe redound,
 The firmest flint doth in continuance weare: 
 Yet cannot I, with many a dropping teare,
 And long intreatie, soften her hard hart, 
 That she will once vouchsafe my plaint to heare,
 Or look with pitty on my painefull Smart.
 But when I plead, she bids me play my part, 
 And when I weepe, she sayes. Teares are but water:
 And when I sigh, she sayes, I knowe the art, 
 And when I waile, she turnes herselfe to laughter.
   But when I plead . . .

 So doe I weepe and waile, and plead in vaine, 
 Whiles she as steele and flint doth still remaine.

Input by John Versmoren

Authorship

Edmund Spenser (1552-1599)

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

Maurice Greene (1696-1755)

Added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.

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