To Blossoms (Gertrude Hine)

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• (Posted 2023-10-27)  CPDL #76752:     

Editor: David Anderson (submitted 2023-10-27).   Score information: Letter, 8 pages, 396 kB   Copyright: Personal

Edition notes:

General Information

Title: To Blossoms
Composer: Gertrude Hine
Lyricist: Robert Herrick
Number of voices: 4vv   Voicing: SATB
Genre: Secular, Partsong

Language: English
Instruments: A cappella

First published: 1877 Novello, Ewer, and Co.
Description: 

Original text and translations

English text

Fair pledges of a fruitful tree,
Why do ye fall so fast?
Your date is not so past
But you may stay yet here awhile
To blush and gently smile,
And go at last.

What! were ye born to be
An hour or half’s delight,
And so to bid good night?
’Twas pity Nature brought you forth
Merely to show your worth
And lose you quite.
But you are lovely leaves, where we
May read how soon things have
Their end, though ne’er so brave:
And after they have shown their pride
Like you awhile, they glide
Into the grave.

NOTE: In line 4, original Novello publication reverses two words of Herrick’s poem:
But you may stay here yet awhile.”