by William Shakespeare (1564 - 1616)
How like a winter hath my absence been
Language: English
Available translation(s): ITA
How like a winter hath my absence been From thee, the pleasure of the fleeting year! What freezings have I felt, what dark days seen! What old December's bareness everywhere! And yet this time remov'd was summer's time, The teeming autumn, big with rich increase, Bearing the wanton burthen of the prime, Like widow'd wombs after their lords' decease: Yet this abundant issue seem'd to me But hope of orphans and unfather'd fruit; For summer and his pleasures wait on thee, And thou away, the very birds are mute; Or if they sing, 'tis with so dull a cheer That leaves look pale, dreading the winter's near.
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Text Authorship:
- by William Shakespeare (1564 - 1616), no title, appears in Sonnets, no. 97 [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 Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco (1895 - 1968), "Sonnet XCVII - How like the winter", op. 125 (Shakespeare Sonnets), Heft 1 no. 15 (1944-7) [ voice and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
- by Roxanna Panufnik (b. 1968), "How like a Winter", 2016, first performed 2016 [ soprano, cello and piano ], from Summer to Winter, no. 2 [sung text not yet checked]
- by Roxanna Panufnik (b. 1968), "Winter's Near", 2008, first performed 2008 [ tenor, french horn and piano ], from The Generation of Love, Peters Edition [sung text not yet checked]
- by Richard Simpson (1820 - 1876), "Sonnet XCVII", 1864-5 [ medium voice or high voice and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
- by Ludmilla Ulehla (b. 1923), "How like a winter hath my absence been" [sung text checked 1 time]
- by Elizabeth Walton Vercoe (b. 1941), "How like a winter", 1994 [ mezzo-soprano and piano ], from Varieties of Amorous Experience, no. 3, confirmed with composer's website [sung text checked 1 time]
Settings in other languages, adaptations, or excerpts:
- Also set in Polish (Polski), a translation by Maciej Słomczyński (1922 - 1998) ; composed by Tadeusz Baird.
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Other available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):
- FRE French (Français) (François-Victor Hugo) , no title, appears in Sonnets de Shakespeare, no. 97, first published 1857
- ITA Italian (Italiano) (Ferdinando Albeggiani) , "E' stata la mia assenza simile a freddo inverno", copyright © 2007, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
Researcher for this page: Barbara Miller
This text was added to the website: 2005-08-06
Line count: 14
Word count: 107