Pleasure-Pain (Howells, set by E. MacDowell, H. Kjerulf) (The Lied and Art Song Texts Page: Texts and Translations to Lieder, mélodies, canzoni, and other classical vocal music)


One sails away to sea, to sea,
One stands on the shore and cries;
The ship goes down the world, and the light
On the sullen water dies. 

The whispering shell is mute,
And after is evil cheer;
She shall stand on the shore and cry in vain,
Many and many a year. 

But the stately wide-winged ship
Lies wrecked, lies wrecked on the unknown deep;
Far under, dead in his coral bed,
The lover lies asleep.

Authorship

William Dean Howells (1837-1920)

Poems

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

Halfdan Kjerulf (1815-1868)

Edward Alexander MacDowell (1860-1908)

Eight Love Songs

Added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.

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