Sonnet LIV (Shakespeare, set by R. Faith) (The Lied and Art Song Texts Page: Texts and Translations to Lieder, mélodies, canzoni, and other classical vocal music)


O, how much more doth beauty beauteous seem
By that sweet ornament which truth doth give?
The rose looks fair, but fairer it we deem
By that sweet odor which doth in it live.
The canker blooms have full as deep a dye
As the perfumed tincture of the roses,
Hang on such thorns, and play as wantonly
When summer's breath their masked buds discloses:
But, for virtue only is their show,
They live unwoo'd, and unrespected fade;
Die unto themselves.  Sweet roses do not so;
Of their sweet deaths are sweetest odors made:
And so of you, beauteous and lovely youth,
When that shall fade, my verse distills your truth.

Input by Barbara Miller

Authorship

William Shakespeare (1564-1616)

Sonnets

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

Richard Bruce Faith (1926-)

Available translations (or transliterations, if applicable):

ITA

Italian

Date added to the website: 2005-06-22.

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