by William Shakespeare (1564 - 1616)
When daffodils begin to peer
Language: English
Available translation(s): CHI
When daffodils begin to peer -
With heigh! The doxy over the dale -
Why, then comes the sweet o' the year;
For the red blood reigns in the winter's pale.
The white sheet bleaching on the hedge -
With heigh! The sweet birds, O how they sing!
Doth set my pugging tooth on edge;
For a quart of ale is a dish for a king.
The lark, that tirra-lirra chants,
With heigh! with heigh! The thrush and the jay,
Are summer songs for me and my aunts,
While we lie tumbling in the hay.
But shall I go mourn for that, my dear?
The pale moon shines by night:
And when I wander here and there,
I then do most go right.
Jog on, jog on, the foot-path way,
And merrily hent the stile-a:
A merry heart goes all the day,
Your sad tires in a mile-a.
R. Quilter sets stanzas 1-3
E. Moeran sets stanzas 1-3
About the headline (FAQ)
View original text (without footnotes)1 Not set by Quilter.
Text Authorship:
- by William Shakespeare (1564 - 1616), no title, appears in A Winter's Tale, Act IV, Scene 3 [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 Marc Blitzstein (1905 - 1964), "Shepherd's song", published 1958 [ low voice, piano ], from Six Elizabethan Songs, no. 2 [sung text checked 1 time]
- by Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco (1895 - 1968), "Merry heart" [ voice and piano ], from Shakespeare Songs, Book IX, no. 1 [sung text not yet checked]
- by Stanley Fletcher , "When daffodils begin to peer ", 1950, first performed 1950 [ baritone and piano ], from A Shakespeare Triad [sung text not yet checked]
- by John (Nicholson) Ireland (1879 - 1962), "When daffodils begin to peer", 1903, from Songs of a Wayfarer, no. 2 [sung text checked 1 time]
- by Ernest John Moeran (1894 - 1950), "The sweet o' the year", R. 61 (1931), published 1931, stanzas 1-3 [ voice and piano ], Augener [sung text checked 1 time]
- by Roger Quilter (1877 - 1953), "When daffodils begin to peer", op. 30 no. 2 (1933), published 1933, stanzas 1-3 [ voice and piano ], from Four Shakespeare Songs (Third Set), no. 2, London, Boosey [sung text checked 1 time]
- by John Theodore Livingston Raynor (1909 - 1970), "When daffodils begin to peer", op. 374 (1952) [ voice and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
- by Peter Warlock (1894 - 1930), "The sweet o' the year", 1928, published 1929 [ voice and piano ], from Seven Songs of Summer, no. 4 [sung text not yet checked]
Settings in other languages, adaptations, or excerpts:
- Also set in German (Deutsch), a translation by Otto Gildemeister (1823 - 1902) , no title ; composed by Jan Karol Gall.
Other available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):
- CHI Chinese (中文) [singable] (Dr Huaixing Wang) , copyright © 2024, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
- FRE French (Français) (François Pierre Guillaume Guizot) , no title
Researcher for this page: Ted Perry
This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 20
Word count: 145