Song

Nay but you, who do not love her,
  Is she not pure gold, my mistress?
Holds earth aught -- speak truth -- above her?
  Aught like this tress, see, and this tress,
And this last fairest tress of all,
So fair, see, ere I let it fall?
Because, you spend your lives in praising;
  To praise, you search the wide world over:
Then why not witness, calmly gazing,
  If earth holds aught -- speak truth -- above her?
Above this tress, and this, I touch
But cannot praise, I love so much!

by Robert Browning (1812-1889) , "Song", from Bells and Pomegranates, No. VII, published 1845

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

by John Parsons Beach (1877-1953) , "Is she not pure gold", published 1907. [medium voice and piano]
by William Henry Bell (1873-1946) , "Nay, but you, who do not love her", op. 9 no. ? [voice and piano], from Songs of youth and springtide, no. ?
by Harry Ellingham , "Her tresses" [medium voice and piano]
by James Cliffe Forrester (1860-1941) , "Devotion" [high voice and piano], from Songs, Words by Robert Browning, no. ?
by Eleanor Everest Freer (1864-1942) , "Nay! but you do not love her", published 1912. [low voice and piano]
by Eleanor C. Gregory , "Song", published 1887 [medium-high voice and piano], from Six songs, no. ?
by Edward Iles , "Nay, but do you not love her", published 1920 [medium voice and piano], from Three songs, no. ?
by Harold Vincent Jervis-Read (1883-1945) , "My mistress", published 1918 [medium voice and piano], from Two Ecstasies, no. ?
by Malcolm Leonard Lawson (1849-) , "Is she not pure gold, my mistress?" [voice and piano]
by George Oldroyd (1886-1951) , "Tresses", published 1924. [high voice and piano]
by W. A. Pickard-Cambridge , "Nay, but you, who do not love her", published 1928 [medium or low voice and piano], from Six songs, no. ?
by Sir Arthur Somervell (1863-1937) , "Nay, but you, who do not love her", published 1923 [voice and piano], from A Broken Arc, no. ?
by Arthur Wilder Thayer (1857-1934) , "Nay, but you", published 1892 [high voice and piano], from Three songs, no. ?
by Francis Toye (1883-1964) , "Nay, but you, who do not love her", published 1938. [medium voice and piano]

Date added to the website: 2009-02-26.

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