I seek my shepherd gone astray (Thomas Arne)

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• (Posted 2024-11-06)  CPDL #82647: 

Editor: Christopher Shaw (submitted 2024-11-06).   Score information: A4, 3 pages, 122 kB   Copyright: CC BY SA

Edition notes: Please click on the link for preview/playback/PDF download.

General Information

Title: I seek my shepherd gone astray
Composer: Thomas Arne
Lyricist:
Number of voices: 1v   Voicing: solo high
Genre: Secular, Aria

Language: English
Instruments: Basso continuo, violin

First published: 1760
Description: 

Original text and translations

English text

I seek my shepherd gone astray,
He left our cot the other day;
Tell me, ye gentle nymphs and swains,
Pass'd the dear rebel through your plains?
Oh! whither, whither must I roam,
To find and charm the wand'rer home?

Sports he upon the sheaven green,
Or joys he in the mountain scene;
Leads his flocks along the mead,
Or does he seek the cooler shade?
Oh! teach a wretched nymph the way
To find her lover gone astray.

To paint, ye nymphs, my truant swain:
A manly softness crowns his mien;
Adonis was not half so fair,
And when he talks, 'tis heav'n to hear.
But Oh! the soothing poison shun;
To listen is to be undone.

He'll swear no time will quench his flame:
To me the perjur'd swore the same;
Too fondly loving to be wise,
Who gave my heart, an easy prize;
And, when he tun'd his siren voice,
Listen'd, and was undone by choice.

But sated now, he shuns the kiss
He courted once, his greatest bliss;
Whilst I with fiercer passions burn,
And pant and die for his return.
Oh! whither, whither shall I rove,
Again to find my straying love?