Return blest days (John Stafford Smith)

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• (Posted 2021-09-18)  CPDL #65820:         

Editor: James Gibb (submitted 2021-09-18).   Score information: A4, 6 pages, 156 kB   Copyright: CPDL

Edition notes:

• (Posted 2021-09-13)  CPDL #65775: 

Editor: Christopher Shaw (submitted 2021-09-13).   Score information: A4, 6 pages, 289 kB   Copyright: CC BY SA

Edition notes: Includes a keyboard reduction of the a cappella choral score. Please click on the link for preview/playback/PDF download.

Possible error(s) identified. See the discussion page for full description.

General Information

Title: Return blest days
Composer: John Stafford Smith
Lyricist: Thomas Percy^{create page}
Number of voices: 4vv   Voicing: ATTB
Genre: Secular, Glee

Language: English
Instruments: A cappella

First published: 1777 Warren's sixteenth collection
    2nd published: 1852 Novello's Glee Hive no.27
Description: This glee gained a Catch Club prize medal in 1777.

Original text and translations

English text

Return, blest days, return ye laughing hours,
Which led me up the roseate steep of youth,
Which strew'd my simple path with vernal flow'rs,
And bid me court chaste science and fair truth.
Witness, ye daughters of the year,
If e'er a sigh had learnt to heave my breast,
If e'er my cheek was conscious of a tear,
And robb'd my soul of rest.
So soft, so delicate, so sweet she came,
Youth's damask glow just dawning on her cheek;
I gaz'd, I sigh'd, I caught the flame,
Felt the fond pang, and droop'd with passion weak.