Sweet day
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General information
Lyricist: George Herbert
Settings by composers
- Jeffrey Quick SATB (vv.1-2 & 4)
- Ralph Vaughan Williams SATB
Texts and Translations
English text
1 Sweet day, so cool, so calm, so bright,
The bridal of the earth and sky:
The dew shall weep thy fall tonight,
For thou must die.
2 Sweet rose, whose hue, angry and brave,
Bids the rash gazer wipe his eye:
Thy root is ever in its grave,
And thou must die.
3 Sweet spring, full of sweet days and roses,
A box where sweets compacted lie;
My music shows ye have your closes,
And all must die.
4 Only a sweet and virtuous soul,
Like seasoned timber, never gives;
But though the whole world turn to coal,
Then chiefly lives.