The past

 Wilt thou forget the happy hours
 Which we buried in love's sweet bowers,
 Heaping over their corpses cold
 Blossoms and leaves, instead of mould?
 Blossoms which were the joys that fell,
 And leaves, the hopes, the hopes that yet remain.
 Forget the dead, forget the past? Oh, yet 
 There are ghosts that may take revenge for it,
 Memories that make the heart a tomb,
 [Revenge which glides o'er]1 the spirit's gloom
 And with ghastly whispers tell,
 That joy, once lost, is pain.

by Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792-1822) , "The past", published 1824

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

by William Sterndale Bennett (1816-1875) , "The past", op. 23 no. 5, note: also set in German

by William Sterndale Bennett (1816-1875) , "Entflohenes Glück", op. 23 no. 5, note: also set in English

Date added to the website: 2003-11-26.

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Entflohenes Glück

 Obwohl dein Herz der Stunden denkt,
 in den Lauben der Lust versenkt,
 über die wir nicht was schreckt,
 Blüten und Blätter nur gedeckt:
 Blüten, die Wonnen die uns entfloh'n,
 und Hoffnungsblätter schöner, schöner Zeit.
 Denkt ihrer noch, denkt ihrer dein Herz, dein Herz?
 Es gibt Geister g'nug für Weh und Schmerz;
 Eumeniden folgen deiner Spur,
 Erinnerung grausiger Natur.
 Sie flüstern in Gespensterton:
 Entfloh'ne Lust ist Leid!

by Wilhelm Gerhard

a text in English by Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792-1822) , "The past", published 1824

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

by William Sterndale Bennett (1816-1875) , "Entflohenes Glück", op. 23 no. 5, note: also set in English

Date added to the website: 2003-11-26.