Will you come?
[Will you come?]1
Will you ride
So late
At my side?
O, will you come?

[Will you come?
Will you come]1
If the night
Has a moon,
[Full and bright?
O, will you come]1?

[Would you come?]1
Would you come
If the noon
Gave light,
Not the moon?
[Beautiful]2, would you come?

[Would you have come?]1
Would you have come
Without scorning,
Had it been
Still morning?
Beloved, would you have come?

If you come
Haste and come,
Owls have cried;
It grows dark 
To ride.
Beloved, beautiful, come.

View original text (without footnotes)
¹ omitted by Maconchy.
² Maconchy: "O beautiful"

Text Authorship:

• by Edward Thomas (1878 - 1917), as Edward Eastaway, "Will you come?", first published 1917 [author's text checked 1 time against a primary source]

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

• by Gary Bachlund (b. 1947), "Will you come?", 2010 [ tenor and piano ], from Ten Poems of Edward Thomas, no. 10 [sung text checked 1 time]
• by Ivor (Bertie) Gurney (1890 - 1937), "Will you come?", 1922, published 1926 [ voice and piano ], from Lights Out, no. 5 [sung text checked 1 time]
• by Derek Healey (b. 1936), "Will you come?", op. 126 no. 5 (2011) [ high voice and piano ], from Five Edward Thomas Songs: Set 2, no. 5 [sung text not yet checked]
• by Elizabeth Maconchy (1907 - 1994), "Will you come?", 1965, first performed 1966 [ SATB chorus a cappella ], from Nocturnal, no. 2 [sung text checked 1 time]

Researcher for this page: David Kenneth Smith

This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 30
Word count: 92