COMPOSER: Judith Weir
Alice Coote, mezzo-soprano
Graham Johnson, piano
BBC Proms Chamber Music recital, Monday, July 16, 2007.

(TEXT: "I Had a Dove and the Sweet Dove Died" by John Keats)

I had a dove and the sweet dove died;
And I have thought it died of grieving:
Oh, what could it grieve for? Its feet were tied,
With a silken thread of my own
hand's weaving;
Sweet little red feet! why should you die -
Why should you leave me, sweet dove! why?
You liv'd alone on the forest-tree,
Why, pretty thing! could you not live with me?
I kiss'd you oft and gave you white peas;
Why not live sweetly, as in the green trees?