The fair singer (Marvell, set by B. Roe) (The Lied and Art Song Texts Page: Texts and Translations to Lieder, mélodies, canzoni, and other classical vocal music)


To make a final conquest of all me,
Love did compose so sweet an Enemy,
In whom both Beauties to my death agree,
Joining themselves in fatal Harmony;
That while she with her Eyes my Heart does bind,
She with her Voice might captivate my Mind.

I could have fled from One but singly fair:
My disentangled Soul it self might save,
Breaking the curled trammels of her hair.
But how should I avoid to be her Slave,
Whose subtle Art invisibly can wreath
My Fetters of the very Air I breath?

It had been easy¹ fighting in some plain,
Where Victory might hang in equal choice.
But all resistance against her is vain,
Who has the advantage both of Eyes and Voice.
And all my Forces needs must be undone,
She having gained both the Wind and Sun.

View text without footnotes
¹ repeated by Roe.

Input by Iain Sneddon

Authorship

Andrew Marvell (1621-1678)

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

Betty Roe (1930-)

Date added to the website: 2009-10-15.

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