Cease smiling, Dear! a little while be sad (Dowson, set by F. Delius) (The Lied and Art Song Texts Page: Texts and Translations to Lieder, mélodies, canzoni, and other classical vocal music)


 Cease smiling, Dear! a little while be sad,
 Here in the silence, under the wan moon.
 Sweet are thine eyes, but how can I be glad,
 Knowing they change so soon?

 O could this moment be perpetuate!
 Must we grow old, and leaden-eyed and gray
 And taste no more the wild and passionate
 Love sorrows of to-day?

 O red pomegranate of thy perfect mouth!
 My lips' life-fruitage might I taste and die,
 Here to thy garden, where the scented south
 Wind chastens agony;

 Reap death from thy live lips in one long kiss,
 And look my last into thine eyes and rest:
 What sweets had life to me sweeter than this
 Swift dying on thy breast?
 
 Or, if that may not be, for Love's sake, Dear!
 Keep silence still, and dream that we shall lie.
 Red mouth to mouth, entwined, and always hear
 The south wind's melody,

 Here in thy garden, through the sighing boughs,
 Beyond the reach of time and chance and change,
 And bitter life and death, and broken vows,
 That sadden and estrange.

Input by Ahmed E. Ismail

Authorship

Ernest Dowson (1867-1900)

Verses

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

Frederick Delius (1862-1934)

Songs of Sunset

Date added to the website: 2005-01-23.

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