Four Views of Love

AUDIO
WHEN YOU ARE OLD
LET IT BE YOU
LET IT BE FORGOTTEN
A THUNDERSTORM IN TOWN

PROGRAM NOTE
The four songs express the different aspects of love, from loss, to profound love, an old love that, in reality, will never be forgotten, and a cute look at an early relationship.

WHEN YOU ARE OLD
William Butler Yeats (1865-1939)

When you are old and grey and full of sleep,
And nodding by the fire, take down this book,
And slowly read, and dream of the soft look
Your eyes had once, and of their shadows deep;

How many loved your moments of glad grace,
And loved your beauty with love false or true,
But one man loved the pilgrim Soul in you,
And loved the sorrows of your changing face;

And bending down beside the glowing bars,
Murmur, a little sadly, how Love fled
And paced upon the mountains overhead
And hid his face amid a crowd of stars.

LET IT BE YOU
Sara Teasdale (1884-1933)

Let it be you who lean above me
On my last day,
Let it be you who shut my eyelids
Forever and aye.
Say a “Goodnight” as you have said it
All of these years,
With the old look, with the old whisper
And without tears.
You will know then all that in silence
You always knew,
Though I have loved, I loved no other
As I loved you.

LET IT BE FORGOTTEN
Sara Teasdale

Let it be forgotten, as a flower is forgotten,
Forgotten as a fire that once was singing gold,
Let it be forgotten for ever and ever,
Time is a kind friend, he will make us old.

If anyone asks, say it was forgotten
Long and long ago,
As a flower, as a fire, as a hushed footfall
In a long forgotten snow.

A THUNDERSTORM IN TOWN
Thomas Hardy (1840-1928)

She wore a ‘terra-cotta’ dress,
And we stayed, because of the pelting storm,
Within the hansom’s dry recess,
Though the horse had stopped; yea,   motionless
We sat on, snug and warm.

Then the downpour ceased, to my sharp sad pain,
And the glass that had screened our forms before
Flew up, and out she sprang to her door:
I should have kissed her if the rain
Had lasted a minute more.