Too Soon So Fair, Fair Lilies (Arthur Foote)

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• (Posted 2023-10-16)  CPDL #76378:     

Editor: David Anderson (submitted 2023-10-16).   Score information: Letter, 12 pages, 587 kB   Copyright: Personal

Edition notes:

General Information

Title: Too Soon So Fair, Fair Lilies
Composer: Arthur Foote
Lyricist: Augusta Webster
Number of voices: 4vv   Voicing: SATB
Genre: Secular, Partsong

Language: English
Instruments: A cappella

First published: 1908 Arthur P. Schmidt
Description: Four Songs, Opus 68, No. 1

Original text and translations

English text

    “Too soon so fair, fair lilies;
To bloom is then to wane;
    The folded bud has still
    Tomorrow at its will;
Blown flowers can never blow again.

    Too soon so bright, bright noontide;
The sun that now is high
    Will henceforth only sink
    Towards the western brink;
Day that’s at prime begins to die.

    Too soon so rich, ripe summer,
For autumn tracks thee fast;
    Lo, death-marks on the leaf!
    Sweet summer, and my grief;
For summer come is summer past.

    Too soon, too soon, lost summer;
Some hours and thou art o’er.
    Ah! death is part of birth:
    Summer leaves not the earth,
But last year’s summer lives no more.”

From Yu-Pe-Ya’s Lute (1874)