The primrose (Herrick, set by F. Bridge) (The Lied and Art Song Texts Page: Texts and Translations to Lieder, mélodies, canzoni, and other classical vocal music)


Ask me why I send you here
This sweet Infanta of the year?
Ask me why I send to you
This Primrose thus be-pearled with dew?
I will whisper to your ears,
The sweets of love are mixed with tears.

Ask me why the flow'r does show,
So yellow-green, and sickly too?
Ask me why the stalk is weak,
And bending, yet it doth not break?
I will answer, these discover,
What fainting hopes are in a lover.

Input by Ted Perry

Authorship

Robert Herrick (1591-1674)

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

Frank Bridge (1879-1941)

Added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.

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