To Music, to becalm his fever

Charm me asleep, and melt me so
With thy delicious numbers,
That, being ravish'd, hence I go
Away in easy slumbers.
Ease my sick head,
And make my bed,
Thou power that canst sever
From me this ill,
And quickly still,
Though thou not kill
My fever.

Thou sweetly canst convert the same
From a consuming fire
Into a gentle licking flame,
And make it thus expire.
Then make me weep
My pains asleep;
And give me such reposes
That I, poor I,
May think thereby
I live and die
'Mongst roses.

Fall on me like a silent dew,
Or like those maiden showers
Which, by the peep of day, do strew
A baptism o'er the flowers
Melt, melt my pains
With thy soft strains;
That, having ease me given,
With full delight
I leave this light,
And take my flight
[For]1 Heaven.

by Robert Herrick (1591-1674) , "To Music, to becalm his fever"

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

by Leslie R. Bassett (1923-) , "To music", published c1966, from To Music, no. 2.
by Elliott Cook Carter, Jr. (1908-) , "To Music"
by Andre Douw (1951-) , "To music, to becalm his fever", 1983, from Herrick Songs, no. 2.
by John Edmunds (1913-1986) , "To Music", 1935.
by Miriam Gideon (1906-1996) , "To Music", 1957.
by Paul Hindemith (1895-1963) , "To Music, to becalm his Fever"
by Brian Holmes (1946-) , "To Musique, to becalme his Fever" [tenor, orchestra], from The Trumpet and other Songs, no. 5.
by Mervyn, Lord Horder, the Second Baron of Ashford (1910-1998) , "Charm me asleep", alternate title: "To music". [voice and piano]
by Ned Rorem (1923-) , "To Music, to becalm his Fever", published 1952, from Flight For Heaven, no. 1.

by Ernst Hermann Meyer (1905-1988) , "An die Musik"

Added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.

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