To Althea from prison (Charles Hubert Hastings Parry)
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- Editor: John Henry Fowler (submitted 2008-03-30). Score information: A4, 5 pages, 66 kB Copyright: CPDL
- Edition notes:
General Information
Title: To Althea from prison
Composer: Charles Hubert Hastings Parry
Lyricist: Richard Lovelace
Number of voices: 1v Voicing: Tenor solo
Genre: Secular, Art song
Language: English
Instruments: Piano
First published: 1895
Description: English Lyrics - Set 3 no.3.
- To Lucasta on going to the wars
- If thou wouldst ease thine heart
- To Althea from prison
- Why so pale and wan
- Through the ivory gate
- Of all the torments
External websites:
Original text and translations
English text
When Love with unconfined wings
Hovers within my gates;
And my divine Althea brings
To whisper at the grates:
When I lie tangled in her hair,
Or fettered to her eye;
The gods, that wanton in the air,
Know no such liberty.
When flowing cups run swiftly round
With no allaying Thames,
Our careless heads with roses crowned,
Our hearts with loyal flames;
When thirsty grief in wine we steep,
And healths and draughts go free,
Fishes, that tipple in the deep,
Know no such liberty.
When (like committed linnets) I
With shriller throat shall sing
The sweetness, mercy, majesty,
And glories of my king;
When I shall voice aloud how good
He is, how great should be,
Enlarged winds, that curl the flood,
Know no such liberty.
Stone walls do not a prison make,
Nor iron bars a cage;
Minds innocent and quiet take
That for an hermitage;
If I have freedom in my love,
And in my soul am free,
Angels alone that soar above,
Enjoy such liberty.
Note: Third stanza is omitted in this setting.