Life in a love (Browning, set by N. Rorem, G. Bantock, E. Bruguiere, J. Machardy) (The Lied and Art Song Texts Page: Texts and Translations to Lieder, mélodies, canzoni, and other classical vocal music)


     Escape me?
     Never -
     Beloved!
While I am I, and you are you,
  So long as the world contains us both,
  Me the loving and you the loth,
While the one eludes, must the other pursue.
My life is a fault at last, I fear -
  It seems too much like a fate, indeed!
  Though I do my best I shall scarce succeed -
But what if I fail of my purpose here?

It is but to keep the nerves at strain,
  To dry one's eyes and laugh at a fall,
And baffled, get up to begin again, -
  So the chase takes up one's life, that's all.
While, look but once from your farthest bound,
  At me so deep in the dust and dark,
No sooner the old hope drops to ground
  Than a new one, straight to the selfsame mark,
     I shape me -
     Ever
     Removed!

Input by Ahmed E. Ismail

Authorship

Robert Browning (1812-1889)

Men and Women

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

Sir Granville Ransome Bantock (1868-1946)

Dramatic Lyrics Set II

Emile Antoine Bruguiere

German

James M. P. Machardy

Ned Rorem (1923-)

Evidence of Things Not Seen

Set in German, a translation of F. H. Schneider [text unavailable]

Emile Antoine Bruguiere

English

Date added to the website: 2004-08-04.

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