by Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1828 - 1882)
Lovesight
Language: English
When do I see thee most, beloved one? When in the light the spirits of mine eyes Before thy face, their altar, solemnize The worship of that Love through thee made known? Or when in the dusk hours, (we two alone) Close-kissed and eloquent of still replies Thy twilight-hidden glimmering visage lies, And my soul only sees thy soul its own? O love - my love! if I no more should see Thyself, nor on the earth the shadow of thee, Nor image of thine eyes in any spring, How then should sound upon Life's darkening slope The groundwhirl of the perished leaves of Hope The wind of Death's imperishable wing?
Text Authorship:
- by Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1828 - 1882), "Lovesight", appears in Poems, first published 1870 [author's text not yet checked 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 John Hall (b. 1943), "Lovesight", 1974, first performed 1974 [ voice and piano ], from Three Poems of Dante Gabriel Rossetti [sung text not yet checked]
- by Ellen Riley (d. 1904), as Ellen Wright, "Lovesight", published 1900 [ voice and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
- by Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872 - 1958), "Lovesight", 1903, published 1904 [ voice and piano ], from The House of Life, no. 1 [sung text checked 1 time]
Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):
- GER German (Deutsch) (Richard Flatter) , "Augen der Liebe", appears in Die Fähre, Englische Lyrik aus fünf Jahrhunderten, first published 1936
- POL Polish (Polski) (Jan Kasprowicz) , "Kiedy cię widzieć najlepiej?", Warsaw, Księgarnia H. Antenberga, first published 1907
Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]
This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 14
Word count: 110