The Despairing Lover
SATB choral/piano score
LL-VG438-II-Choir and Piano
"The Despairing Lover" is song II of 'Love Songs For Springtime' by Paul Halley, a cycle of six works with reprise, that celebrates the romance and ironies of love in springtime.
If you wish to purchase the full song cycle at a collection discount, please go to: Love Songs For Springtime | Pelagos Music
Texts
The Despairing Lover
Song II of ‘Love Songs for Springtime’
Text: Traditional English
Music: Paul Halley
DISTRACTED with care,
For Phillis the fair,
Since nothing could move her,
Poor Damon, her lover,
Resolves in despair
No longer to languish,
Nor bear so much anguish;
But, mad in his love,
To a precipice goes;
Where a leap from above
Would soon finish his woes.
When in rage he came there,
Beholding how steep
The sides did appear,
And the bottom how deep,
His torments projecting
And sadly reflecting,
That a lover forsaken
A new love may get;
But a neck, when once broken,
Can never be set:
And that he could die
Whenever he would;
But that he could live
But as long as he could:
How grievous soever
The torment might grow,
He scorn'd to endeavour
To finish it so.
But bold, unconcern'd
At thoughts of the pain,
He calmly return'd
To his cottage again.
