Dowland's 'Flow my Tears'

[Swede]

As performed by Alfred Deller.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=85C1jX0P28k

Flow, my tears, fall from your springs!
Exiled for ever, let me mourn;
Where night’s black bird her sad infamy sings,
There let me live forlorn.

Down vain lights, shine you no more!
No nights are dark enough for those
That in despair their lost fortunes deplore.
Light doth but shame disclose.

Never may my woes be relieved,
Since pity is fled;
And tears and sighs and groans my weary days
Of all joys have deprived.

From the highest spire of contentment
My fortune is thrown;
And fear and grief and pain for my deserts
Are my hopes, since hope is gone.

Hark! you shadows that in darkness dwell,
Learn to contemn light.
Happy, happy they that in hell
Feel not the world’s despite.

[Orrex]

1. He totally ripped that off from Philip K Dick.

[tigereye]

2. ah, so beautiful! I had not heard of him before. Love Dowland, but have

mostly heard Paul Odette playing...

[marzipanni]

3. That is beautiful, but sad

One of my older brothers plays lute and had some Dowland records and others of that genre that he played in the sixties.

In springtime I think of this cheerful little song because I remember it from a record he had many years ago.
Under Songs from the Plays click on "It was a Lover and His Lass" for mp3 and lyrics
http://internetshakespeare.uvic.ca/Library/SLT/literature/shakespeare.html