I got me flowers (Ralph Vaughan Williams)

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CPDL #17105:  

Contributor: David Newman (added 2008-06-07).   Score information: A4, 3 pages, 171 kbytes       Copyright: Public Domain

Edition notes: Cross posting by Art Song Central - File Sizes: PDF: 171 KB

General Information

Title: I Got Me Flowers
Composer: Ralph Vaughan Williams

Lyricist: George Herbert

Number of voices: 1v  Voicing: Solo Baritone, with SATB chorus ad. lib
Genre: Sacred, Art song

Language: English
Instruments: Piano
Published: 1911

Description: "I got me flowers" is Number 2 in Ralph Vaughan Williams Song Collection entitled "5 Mystical Songs". The work sets four poems by George Herbert, from his 1633 collection "The Temple: Sacred Poems and Private Ejaculations".

External websites:

• Complete works of George Herbert.

Original text and translations

English text

I got me flowers to strew thy way;

I got me boughs off many a tree:

But thou wast up by break of day,

And brought'st thy sweets along with thee.

The Sun arising in the East,

Though he give light, and the East perfume;

If they should offer to contest

With thy arising, they presume.

Can there be any day but this,

Though many suns to shine endeavour?

We count three hundred, but we miss:

There is but one, and that one ever.

Consort both heart and lute, and twist a song

Pleasant and long:

Or since all music is but three parts vied,

And multiplied;

O let thy blessed Spirit bear a part,

And make up our defects with his sweet art.

Lyrics: George Herbert (1593-1633) , "I Got Me Flowers", from "The Temple: Sacred Poems and Private Ejaculations", published 1633.