My true Love hath my heart and I have his. By just exchange, one [for]1 the other given: I hold his dear, and mine he cannot miss; There never was a [bargain better]2 driven[.]3 His heart in me keeps [me and him]4 in one; My heart in him his thoughts and senses [guides]5: He loves my heart, for once it was his own; I cherish his because in me it bides[.]3 His heart his wound received from my sight; My heart was wounded with his wounded heart; For as from me on him his hurt did light, So still methought in me his hurt did smart: Both equal hurt, in this change sought our bliss: My true Love hath my heart, and I have his.
Two Songs
Song Cycle by John (Nicholson) Ireland (1879 - 1962)
1. My true love hath my heart  [sung text not yet checked]
Text Authorship:
- by Philip Sidney, Sir (1554 - 1586), no title, appears in Arcadia
See other settings of this text.
Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):
- GER German (Deutsch) (Richard Flatter) , "Der Handel", appears in Die Fähre, Englische Lyrik aus fünf Jahrhunderten, first published 1936
Confirmed with Love Songs of English Poets, 1500-1800, New York : D. Appleton and Company, 1892, in which it is titled "Sonnet to Stella", which is probably not the author's title.
Parodied in Archibald Stodart-Walker's My true friend hath my hat.
1 Foote: "to"2 Adler, Carwithen, Foote, Gounod, Rutter, Wilkinson: "better bargain"
3 Adler, Carwithen, Foote: ":/ My true Love hath my heart and I have his." (first line is repeated)
4 Adler, Carwithen, Foote: "him and me"
5 Adler, Carwithen: "guide"
Research team for this page: Emily Ezust [Administrator] , Ted Perry
2. The trellis
Thick-flowered is the trellis That hides our joys From prying eyes of malice And all annoys, And we lie rosily bowered. Through the long afternoons And evenings endlessly Drawn out, when summer swoons In perfume windlessly, Sounds our light laughter. With whispered words between And silent kisses. None but the flowers have seen Our white caresses - Flowers and the bright-eyed birds.
Text Authorship:
- by Aldous Huxley (1894 - 1963)
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Researcher for this page: Ted Perry