Child of summer (William Hayes)

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  • (Posted 2021-03-22)  CPDL #63641:  Network.png
Editor: Christopher Shaw (submitted 2021-03-22).   Score information: A4, 2 pages, 167 kB   Copyright: Personal
Edition notes: Please click on the link for preview/playback/PDF download. Edition offered at original pitch for TTB and also for SSA

General Information

Title: Child of summer
Composer: William Hayes
Lyricist: Anon

Number of voices: 3vv   Voicings: SSA or TTB
Genre: SecularGlee

Language: English
Instruments: A cappella

First published: 1785
Description: The text was very popular when it first appeared, but was always anonymous. A contemporary view was that: "This agreeable little piece is inserted in a Collection of Miscellanies, published under the name of Anna Williams, a blind lady; containing some poems written by herself, and many more by Dr. Johnson, and by Mrs Thrale, Percy, Goldsmith and others, whom the Doctor, from motives of charity, invited to contribute to it. The generosity of one of these gentlemen is rather remarkable: he very modestly suffered Mrs Williams to take the credit of several things which he published a dozen times before under his own name." Thus anonymity is owing to an author's generosity towards an eleemosynary publication. Or perhaps he merely wished to disassociate himself from the phrase "mental fragrance". Because of the mawkish second verse, the poem rapidly lost its status as a much anthologised piece for adults, to an improving piece for children, and thence to use as a subject fit to be embroidered on samplers.

External websites:

Original text and translations

English.png English text

Child of summer, lovely rose,
In thee what blushing beauty glows;
But ere tomorrow's setting sun,
Thy beauty fades, thy form is gone.
Yet though no grace thy buds retain,
Thy pleasing odours still remain.

Clora's smile and thine, sweet flow'r,
Shall bloom and wither in an hour;
But mental fragrance still will last,
When youth and youthful charms are past.
Ye fair, betimes the moral prize,
'Tis lasting beauty to be wise.