Take, o take those lips away

Take, o take those lips away,
That so sweetly [were]1 forsworn;
And those eyes, the break of day,
Lights [that]2 do mislead the morn:
But my kisses bring again;
Seals of love, [but]3 seal'd in vain, sealed in vain.

Hide, o hide those hills of snow
that thy frozen bosom wears,
On whose tops the pinks that grow
are yet of those that April wears;
But first set my poor heart free,
Bound in those icy chains by thee.

by Anonymous/Unidentified Artist
sometimes misattributed to William Shakespeare (1564-1616)

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

by Frederic Ayres (1876-1926) , "Take, o take those lips away", op. 3 (Three Songs) no. 1, stanza 1.
by Amy Marcy Cheney Beach (1867-1944) , "Take, o take those lips away", op. 37 (Three Shakespeare Songs) no. 2.
by Henry Rowley Bishop (1785-1855) , "Take, o take those lips away"
by Rebecca Clarke (1886-1979) , "Take, o take those lips away", 1926?
by Bernard van Dieren (1887-1936) , "Take, o take those lips away", published 1925.
by Madeleine Dring (1923-1977) , "Take, o take those lips away"
by John Edmunds (1913-1986) , "Take, o take those lips away"
by Wolfgang Fortner (1907-1987) , "Take, o take those lips away", 1946, published 1947, stanza 1 [voice and piano], from Songs nach Texten von William Shakespeare mit Klavierbegleitung, no. 7.
by Elizabeth Maconchy (1907-1994) , "Take O Take Those Lips Away", from Four Shakespeare Songs, no. 2.
by Sir Charles Hubert Hastings Parry (1848-1918) , "Take, o take those lips away", 1874-1885, published 1886, from English Lyrics, set 2 no. 2
by Thomas Pasatieri (1945-) , "At the moated grange", 2003 [voice and piano], from A rustling of angels, no. 5.
by Robert Pearsall (1795-1856) , "Take, O take those lips away" [madrigal]
by Mary Plumstead (1905-1980) , "Take, o take those lips away"
by Roger Quilter (1877-1953) , "Take, o take those lips away", op. 23 no. 4, stanza 1.
by Edmund Duncan Rubbra (1901-1986) , "Take, o take those lips away", op. 22 no. 1 (1929).
by Virgil Garnett Thomson (1896-1989) , "Take, o take those lips away", 1956/7, published 1961.
by Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872-1958) , "Take, O take those lips away", 1925, from 3 Songs from Shakespeare, no. 1.
by Peter Warlock (1894-1930) [pseudonym] , "Take, o take those lips away", 1917, published 1919, stanza 1.
by John Wilson (1595-1674) , "Take, o take those lips away"

by Wilhelm Petersen (1890-1957) , "Bleibt, o bleibt ihr Lippen ferne", op. 46 no. 6, from Lieder aus Shakespeare-Dramen, no. 6.

by Ernest Amédée Chausson (1855-1899) , "Chanson d'amour (Mesure pour mesure)", op. 28 no. 2, from Trois Chansons de Shakespeare, no. 2.

FIN Finnish (Paavo Cajander)

Date added to the website: 2003-11-04.

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