Is it indeed so?  If I lay here dead

Is it indeed so?  If I lay here dead,
Wouldst thou miss any life in losing mine?
And would the sun for thee more coldly shine
Because of grave-damps falling round my head?
I marvelled, my Belovëd, when I read
Thy thought so in the letter.  I am thine -- 
But . . . so much to thee?  Can I pour thy wine
While my hands tremble?  Then my soul, instead
Of dreams of death, resumes life's lower range.
Then, love me, Love! look on me -- breathe on me!
As brighter ladies do not count it strange,
For love, to give up acres and degree,
I yield the grave for thy sake, and exchange
My near sweet view of heaven, for earth with thee!

by Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806-1861) , no title, from Poems, in Sonnets from the Portuguese, no. 23, 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) , "Is it indeed so?", published 1910 [medium voice and piano], from Sonnets from the Portuguese, no. 23.
by Harold (Hal) Herman Schaefer (1925-) , "I yield the grave for thy sake", published 1966. [medium-high voice and piano]

GER German (Rainer Maria Rilke)

Date added to the website: 2008-07-24.

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So ist es wirklich wahr, daß, stürb ich...

So ist es wirklich wahr, daß, stürb ich dir,
du fühltest, wie das Leben dann um meins
weniger würde. Dieses Sonnenscheins
Gefühl, es trübte sich für dich, wenn hier
um mein Gesicht Grabschwärze wäre? Fast
erschrak ich, da du's schriebst. Ich bin ja dein;
aber daß du an mir so Großes hast -?
So dürfte meine Hand dir deinen Wein
einschenken, meine bebende? O dann
träum ich nicht mehr vom Tod. Dann sieh mich an,
Geliebter, liebe mich, umgib mich ganz.
Sehr große Damen taten ihren Glanz
um solche Dinge ab. Ich aber werde
dem nahen Himmel fremd um deine Erde.

by Rainer Maria Rilke (1875-1926) , no title, from Sonette aus dem Portugiesischen, no. 23, published 1908

a text in English by Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806-1861) , no title, from Poems, in Sonnets from the Portuguese, no. 23, 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.