Henry Purcell - Z 406 O solitude, my sweetest choice.

O solitude, my sweetest choice!

Places devoted to the night,

remote from tumult and from noise,

how ye my restless thoughts delight!

O solitude, my sweetest choice!

O heav'ns! what content is mine

to see these trees,

which have appeared from the nativity of time,

and which all ages have revered,

to look today as fresh and green

as when their beauties first were seen.

Oh, how agreeable a sight

these hanging mountains do appear,

which th'unhappy would invite

to finish all their sorrows here,

when their hard fate makes them endure such woes

as only death can cure.

Oh, how I solitude adore,

that element of noblest wit,

where I have learnt Apollo's lore,

without the pains to study it.

For thy sake I in love am grown

with what thy fancy doth pursue,

but when I think upon my own,

I hate it for that reason too,

because it needs must hinder me from seeing

and from serving thee.

O solitude, oh how I solitude adore!