Yet, love, mere love, is beautiful...

Yet, love, mere love, is beautiful indeed
And worthy of acceptation.  Fire is bright,
Let temple burn, or flax; an equal light
Leaps in the flame from cedar-plank or weed:
And love is fire.  And when I say at need
I love thee . . . mark! . . . I love thee -- in thy sight
I stand transfigured, glorified aright,
With conscience of the new rays that proceed
Out of my face toward thine.  There's nothing low
In love, when love the lowest: meanest creatures
Who love God, God accepts while loving so.
And what I feel, across the inferior features
Of what I am, doth flash itself, and show
How that great work of Love enhances Nature's.

by Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806-1861) , no title, from Poems, in Sonnets from the Portuguese, no. 10, published 1847

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

by Eleanor Everest Freer (1864-1942) , "Yet, love, mere love, is beautiful indeed", published 1907 [mezzo-soprano and piano], from Sonnets from the Portuguese, no. 10.
by (Charles) Alfred de Kaiser (1872-1917) , "A Paean Love", published 1912 [soprano and tenor duet with piano], from Seven Sonnets from the Portuguese, no. ?
by Bernard James Naylor (1907-1986) , "Yet, love, mere love, is beautiful indeed", 1948, first performed 1955 [mezzo-soprano and string quartet], from Sonnets from the Portuguese, no. ?
by Carlos Surinach (1915-) , "Yet, love is beautiful indeed", published 1966 [voice and piano], from Flamenco Meditations, no. ?

GER German (Rainer Maria Rilke)

Date added to the website: 2008-07-23.

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Doch Liebe, einfach Liebe, ist sie nicht

Doch Liebe, einfach Liebe, ist sie nicht
schön und des Nehmens wert? Es strahlt die Flamme
ob Tempel brennen oder Werg. Es bricht
Licht aus dem Abfall und dem Zedernstamme.
Liebe ist Feuer. Und: ich liebe dich -
- gib acht -: ich liebe dich - wenn ich das sage,
steh ich verwandelt nicht mit einem Schlage
verklärt vor dir? Ich fühle selbst, wie ich
anscheine dein Gesicht. Wo Liebe je
sich niedrig macht, kann sie nicht niedrig werden:
Gott nimmt Geringe an, die sich gebärden
so wie sie sind. Das, was ich fühle, blendet,
über dem Dunkeln, das ich bin: ich seh
wie Liebe wirkend die Natur vollendet.

by Rainer Maria Rilke (1875-1926) , from Sonette aus dem Portugiesischen, no. 10, published 1908

a text in English by Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806-1861) , no title, from Poems, in Sonnets from the Portuguese, no. 10, published 1847

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

[ None yet in the database ]

Date added to the website: 2009-02-19.