Names (Coleridge, set by C. Ide) (The Lied and Art Song Texts Page: Texts and Translations to Lieder, mélodies, canzoni, and other classical vocal music)


I ask'd my fair, one happy day,
What I should call her in my lay,
By what sweet name from Rome or Greece,
[Neaera, Laura, Daphne, Chloris,
Carina, Lalage, or Doris,
Dorimene, or Lucrece?]¹

"Ah!" replied my gentle fair,
"[Dear one]², what are names but air?
Choose thou whatever suits the line;
Call me [Sappho]³, call me Chloris,
Call me Lalage or Doris,
Only -- only -- call me thine!"

View text without footnotes
¹ Ide:

Lalage, Neaera, Chloris,
Seppho, Lesbia, or Doris,
Arethusa or Lucrece?

² Ide: "Beloved"
³ Ide: "Laura"

Authorship

Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834)

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

Chester Edward Ide (1878-1944)

Added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.

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