Lesbia hath a beaming eye (Michael William Balfe)

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(Posted 2024-01-12) CPDL #78694:

Editor: David Anderson (submitted 2024-01-12). Score information: Letter, 12 pages, 577 kB Copyright: Personal

Edition notes:

General Information

Title: Lesbia hath a beaming eye
Composer: Anonymous (Traditional)
Arranger: Michael William Balfe
Lyricist: Thomas Moore
Number of voices: 4vv Voicing: SATB
Genre: Secular, Partsong, Folksong

Language: English
Instruments: Piano

First published: 1859 J. Alfred Novello
Description: AIR: NORA CREINA

External websites:

Original text and translations

English text

Lesbia hath a beaming eye,
      But no one knows for whom it beameth;
Right and left its arrows fly,
      But what they aim at no one dreameth.
Sweeter ’tis to gaze upon
      My Nora’s lid that seldom rises;
Few its looks, but every one,
      Like unexpected light, surprises!
  Oh, my Nora Creina, dear,
      My gentle, bashful Nora Creina,
      Beauty lies
      In many eyes,
      But Love in yours, my Nora Creina.

Lesbia wears a robe of gold,
      But all so close the nymph hath laced it,
Not a charm of beauty’s mould
      Presumes to stay where Nature placed it.
Oh! my Nora’s gown for me,
      That floats as wild as mountain breezes,
Leaving every beauty free
      To sink or swell as Heaven pleases.
  Yes, my Nora Creina, dear,
      My simple, graceful Nora Creina,
      Nature’s dress
      Is loveliness —
      The dress you wear, my Nora Creina.

Lesbia hath a wit refined,
      But, when its points are gleaning round us,
Who can tell if they’re design’d
      To dazzle merely, or to wound us?
Pillow’d on my Nora’s heart,
      In safer slumber Love reposes —
Bed of peace! whose roughest part
      Is but the crumpling of the roses.
  Oh! my Nora Creina, dear,
      My mild, my artless Nora Creina!
      Wit, though bright,
      Hath no such light
      As warms your eyes, my Nora Creina.