The valley of lovers (Yeats, set by J. Damon) (The Lied and Art Song Texts Page: Texts and Translations to Lieder, mélodies, canzoni, and other classical vocal music)


I dreamed that I stood in a valley, and amid sighs,
For happy lovers passed two by two where I stood;
And I dreamed my lost love came stealthily out of the wood
With her cloud-pale eyelids falling on dream-dimmed eyes:
I cried in my dream "O women bid the young men lay
"Their heads on your knees, and drown their eyes with your hair,
"Or remembering hers they will find no other face fair
"Till all the valleys of the world have been withered away."

First published in Saturday Review, January 1897, revised 1899 and 1906. Later titled "Aedh tells of a Valley full of Lovers"

Authorship

William Butler Yeats (1865-1939)

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

Julia Damon

Date added to the website: 2009-01-21.

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