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My mistress' eyesScoring: Voice & Piano
Written: Rainham, Kent - April 2016 Duration: 2'45 Publisher: N/A Cost: Freely available Jim set this sonnet for his wife to sing as part of her series of concerts celebrating Shakespeare's life and works, during the year of the four-hundredth anniversary of his death. It was first performed in Blackheath Halls on the evening of Wednesday 27th April, 2016, by Helen Bailey (soprano) and Dale Wills (piano). Please click on the image of the score cover (left) to download a PDF score |
Sonnet 130 - W. Shakespeare (1564-1616)
My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun;
Coral is far more red than her lips' red;
If snow be white, why then her breasts are dun;
If hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head.
I have seen roses damask'd, red and white,
But no such roses see I in her cheeks;
And in some perfumes is there more delight
Than in the breath that from my mistress reeks.
I love to hear her speak, yet well I know
That music hath a far more pleasing sound;
I grant I never saw a goddess go;
My mistress, when she walks, treads on the ground:
And yet, by heaven, I think my love as rare
As any she belied with false compare.
Coral is far more red than her lips' red;
If snow be white, why then her breasts are dun;
If hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head.
I have seen roses damask'd, red and white,
But no such roses see I in her cheeks;
And in some perfumes is there more delight
Than in the breath that from my mistress reeks.
I love to hear her speak, yet well I know
That music hath a far more pleasing sound;
I grant I never saw a goddess go;
My mistress, when she walks, treads on the ground:
And yet, by heaven, I think my love as rare
As any she belied with false compare.