John Dowland

This piece is taken from lutenist John Dowland's First Book of Songes or Ayres, in which it was presented both as an arrangement for four voices and also as a solo performance. While the title suggests that it is one of the many carpe diem songs written during this period, estolling the pleasures of life and youth, and urging the listener to take advantage of them while it is possible, the song itself is as melancholy as many of Dowland's other pieces, such as Fortune my Foe. This lute song is largely famous for the lovely melody and the striking repetition of rising fourths in the penultimate line of each verse. This is especially effective in the first and second verses, where the text and the music are a perfect fit. In the first verse, the singer urges the beloved to come to him again, so they can enjoy together the pleasures of love, "to see, to hear, to touch, to kiss, to die, " in the second he sings of his sorrow, "I sit, I sigh, I weep, I faint, I die, " and in the somewhat less graceful third verse, he claims that nothing can move her heart, "By sighs, and tears, more hot than are thy shafts/ Did tempt, while she for triumph laughs."