by Alfred Edward Housman (1859 - 1936)
Because I liked you better
Language: English
Because I liked you better Than suits a man to say, It irked you, and I promised To throw the thought away. To put the world between us We parted, stiff and dry; "Good-bye," said you, "forget me." "I will, no fear," said I. If here, where clover whitens The dead man's knoll, you pass, And no tall flower to meet you Starts in the trefoiled grass, Halt by the headstone naming The heart no longer stirred, And say the lad that loved you Was one that kept his word.
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Authorship:
- by Alfred Edward Housman (1859 - 1936), no title, appears in More Poems, no. 31, first published 1936 [author's text not yet checked against a primary source]
Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive):
- by Lennox Randal Francis Berkeley, Sir (1903 - 1989), "Because I liked you better", op. 14 no. 3e (1940), published 1983 [ high voice and piano ], from Five Housman Songs, op. 14 no. 3, no. 5 [sung text checked 1 time]
- by Jake Heggie (b. 1961), "Because I liked you better", 2005, first performed 2005 [ tenor and baritone with violin, viola, cello and piano ], from Here and Gone, no. 6 [sung text checked 1 time]
- by Robert Hugill , "Because I liked you better" [ baritone and piano ], from Four Songs to Texts by A. E. Housman, no. 3 [sung text checked 1 time]
- by Ian Venables (b. 1955), "Because I liked you better", op. 36 no. 4 (2003), first performed 2004 [ tenor, piano, string quartet ], from Songs of Eternity and Sorrow, no. 4 [sung text not yet checked]
- by John Ramsden Williamson (1929 - 2015), "Because I liked you better " [ baritone and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
Researcher for this page: Ted Perry
This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 16
Word count: 90