File 11 - Ballad / J.C. Arlidge

1 ms. score (1 p.) : ink

File consists of score for voice and piano. Text is written on reverse in pencil. The text is taken from Lord Byron's poem, "Stanzas To A Lady, With The Poems Of Camoëns":

This votive pledge of fond esteem,
Perhaps, dear girl! for me thou’lt prize;
It sings of Love’s enchanting dream,
A theme we never can despise.

Who blames it but the envious fool,
The old and disappointed maid;
Or pupil of the prudish school,
In single sorrow doom’d to fade?

Then read, dear girl! with feeling read,
For thou wilt ne’er be one of those;
To thee in vain I shall not plead
In pity for the poet’s woes.

He was in sooth a genuine bard;
His was no faint, fictitious flame.
Like his, may love be thy reward,
But not thy hapless fate the same.

• English

Date based on publication date of sheet music by H.S. Mackie.