Oh see how thick the goldcup flowers

Oh see how thick the goldcup flowers
Are lying in field and lane,
With dandelions to tell the hours
That never are told again.
Oh may I squire you round the meads
And pick you posies gay?
- 'Twill do no harm to take my arm.
"You may, young man, you may."

Ah, spring was sent for lass and lad,
'Tis now the blood runs gold,
And man and maid had best be glad
Before the world is old.
What flowers to-day may flower to-morrow,
But never as good as new.
- Suppose I wound my arm right round - 
"'Tis true, young man, 'tis true."

Some lads there are, 'tis shame to say,
That only court to thieve,
And once they bear the bloom away
'Tis little enough they leave.
Then keep your heart for men like me
And safe from trustless chaps.
My love is true and all for you.
"Perhaps, young man, perhaps."

Oh, look in my eyes, then, can you doubt?
- Why, 'tis a mile from town.
How green the grass is all about!
We might as well sit down.
- Ah, life, what is it but a flower?
Why must true lovers sigh?
Be kind, have pity, my own, my pretty, - 
"Good-bye, young man, good-bye."

by Alfred Edward Housman (1859-1936) , no title, from A Shropshire Lad, no. 5, published 1896

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

by Alfred Redgrave Cripps (1882-1950) , "Oh see how thick the goldcup flowers", published <<1940 [voice and piano], from Nine "Shropshire Lad" Songs, no. ?
by Mervyn, Lord Horder, the Second Baron of Ashford (1910-1998) , "Goldcups", from A Shropshire Lad, no. 2.
by Charles Wilfred Orr (1893-1976) , "Oh see how thick the goldcup flowers", published 1940 [tenor and piano], from Three Songs from "A Shropshire Lad", no. 3.
by Richard Tauber (1891-1948) , "The Shropshire Lad", 1963. [high voice and piano]
by Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872-1958) , "Good-bye", 1927, published 1954, rev. 1954 [voice and violin], from Along the Field, no. 6.

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