Sweet day

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.