Song for a girl

Young I am and yet unskilled
How to make a lover yield,
How to keep, [or]1 how to gain,
When to love, and when to feign. 

Take me, take me, some of you,
While I yet am young and true;
[Ere I can my soul disguise,
Heave my breasts, and roll my eyes.

Stay not till I learn the way, 
How to lie, and to betray; 
He that has me first, is blest, 
For I may deceive the rest. 

Could I find a blooming youth,
Full of love and full of truth,
Brisk, and of a jaunty mien,
I should long to be fifteen.]2

Stay not till I learn the way
How to fib and how betray,
E'er I can my thoughts disguise,
Force a blush or roll my eyes.
Take me, take me, some of you,
While I yet am young and true.

Could I find a blooming youth,
Full of love and full of truth,
Of honest mind and noble mien,
I should long to be sixteen.
Take me, take me, some of you,
While I yet am young and true.

by John Dryden (1631-1700) , "Song for a girl"

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

by James Hook (1746-1827) , "Take me, take me, some of you"
by Ned Rorem (1923-) , "Song for a girl", from Six Songs for High Voice, no. 3.

Added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.

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