The Forward Violet (Michael Gray)
Music files
ICON | SOURCE |
---|---|
Mp3 | |
File details | |
Help |
- Editor: Michael Gray (submitted 2016-12-30). Score information: Letter (landscape), 7 pages, 228 kB Copyright: CC BY NC ND
- Edition notes: Part of an on-going collection, "Book of Sonnets"
General Information
Title: The Forward Violet
Composer: Michael Gray
Lyricist: William Shakespeare
Number of voices: 3vv Voicing: SAB
Genre: Secular, Partsong
Language: English
Instruments: Piano
First published: 2014
Description: Part of an on-going collection, "Book of Sonnets"
External websites:
Original text and translations
English text
The forward violet thus did I chide:
Sweet thief, whence didst thou steal thy sweet that smells,
If not from my love's breath? The purple pride
Which on thy soft cheek for complexion dwells
In my love's veins thou hast too grossly dyed.
The lily I condemned for thy hand,
And buds of marjoram had stol'n thy hair:
The roses fearfully on thorns did stand,
One blushing shame, another white despair;
A third, nor red nor white, had stol'n of both
And to his robbery had annex'd thy breath;
But, for his theft, in pride of all his growth
A vengeful canker eat him up to death.
More flowers I noted, yet I none could see
But sweet or colour it had stol'n from thee.
William Shakespeare (Sonnet XCIX)