Love alone will stay

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" Love alone will stay" is a poem set to music by the English composer Edward Elgar in 1888. The poem was written in 1897 by his wife, Caroline Alice Elgar.

The song was published in a cultural magazine “The Dome” - “a Quarterly containing Examples of All the Arts”^[1]. It is artistically scripted in Elgar’s own hand, and signed and dated “12.IX.97.”

Elgar later included it as the second song, renamed “In Haven”, in his song-cycle for voice and orchestra “Sea Pictures”. The words are slightly different, and the first two verses interchanged.

[edit] Lyrics

LOVE ALONE WILL STAY

Closely cling, for waves drive fast,

Blossoms perish in the blast,

Love alone will last.

Closely let me hold thy hand,

Storms are sweeping sea and land,

Love alone will stand.

Kiss my lips, and softly say,

"Joy may go and sunlit day,

Love alone will stay."

Compare with the words in “Sea Pictures”:

IN HAVEN (CAPRI)

Closely let me hold thy hand,

Storms are sweeping sea and land;

Love alone will stand.

Closely cling, for waves beat fast,

Foam-flakes cloud the hurrying blast;

Love alone will last.

Kiss my lips, and softly say:

"Joy, sea-swept, may fade to-day;

Love alone will stay."

[edit] References

• Kennedy, Michael, Portrait of Elgar (Oxford University Press, 1968) ISBN 0193154145
• Moore, Jerrold N. “Edward Elgar: a creative life” (Oxford University Press, 1984) ISBN 0193154471