My banks they are covered with bees (Stephen Storace)
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- (Posted 2022-08-11) CPDL #70349:
- Editor: Christopher Shaw (submitted 2022-08-11). Score information: A4, 363 pages Copyright: CC BY SA
- Edition notes: Please click on the link for preview/playback/PDF download.
General Information
Title: My banks they are covered with bees
Composer: Stephen Storace
Lyricist: William Shenstone
Number of voices: 2vv Voicings: SS or TT
Genre: Secular, Glee
Language: English
Instruments: Keyboard
First published: c.1782 (n/d) Eight canzonets
Description: Accompaniment for piano or harp prescribed by the composer.
External websites:
Original text and translations
English text
My banks they are covered with bees,
Whose murmur invites one to sleep.
My grottoes are shaded with trees
And my hills are white over with sheep.
I seldom have met with a loss,
Such health do my mountains bestow;
My fountains all border'd with moss,
Where the harebells and violets grow.
One would think she might like to retire
To the bow'r I had labour'd to rear;
Not a shrub that I heard her admire,
But I hasted and planted it there.
O how sudden the jessamine strove
With the lilac to render it gay;
Already it calls for my love,
To prune the wild branches away.
But where does my Phyllida stray,
And where are her grots and her bow'rs?
Are the groves and the valleys so gay,
Are the shepherds as gentle as ours?
The groves may perhaps be as fair,
And the face of the valleys as fine;
The swains may in manners compare,
But their love cannot equal mine.