Nine Songs for High Voice and Piano

Song Cycle by Philip James Martin (b. 1947)

2. Love's secret [sung text not yet checked]

Language: English

Never seek to tell thy love 
Love that never told [can]¹ be;
For the gentle wind does move
Silently, invisibly.

I told my love, I told my love,
I told her all my heart,
[Trembling, cold, in ghastly fears]² --
Ah, she [doth]³ depart.

Soon as she was gone from me
[A traveller came by]⁴
Silently, invisibly --
[He took her with a sigh]⁵.

Text Authorship:

by William Blake (1757 - 1827), "Love's Secret"

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View original text (without footnotes)
¹ Stöhr: "shall"
² Stöhr: "Trembling between hope and fear"
³ Stöhr: "did"
⁴ Stöhr: "A boy chanced going by"
⁵ Leoni: "O, was no deny"

Research team for this page: Emily Ezust [Administrator] , Johann Winkler

3. The sunflower [sung text not yet checked]

Language: English

Ah, Sun-flower! weary of time,
Who countest the steps of the Sun;
Seeking after that sweet golden clime,
Where the traveller's journey is done:

Where the Youth pined away with desire,
And the pale Virgin shrouded in snow,
Arise from their graves and aspire
Where my Sun-flower wishes to go.

Text Authorship:

by William Blake (1757 - 1827), "Ah! Sun-flower! weary of time", appears in Songs of Innocence and Experience, in Songs of Experience, no. 14, first published 1794

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Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

Total word count: 112