Dear heart, why will you use me so?
SATB Chorus & Bass Clarinet (or Cello) | 4'
A meditation on the evolving nature of love, where shadowy gardens wait and wild winds blow. Dear heart, why will you use me so? was jointly commissioned by The Choral Scholars of University College Dublin (Desmond Earley, Conductor) and The Pacific University Chamber Singers (Scott Tuomi, Conductor). This SATB choral work sets a poem from James Joyce's 1907 collection Chamber Music and may be accompanied by bass clarinet or cello. It is featured alongside other settings of Joyce's poems on the University College Dublin Choral Scholars' recent album Chamber Music.
XXIX.
Dear heart, why will you use me so?
Dear eyes that gently me upbraid,
Still are you beautiful—but O,
How is your beauty raimented!
Through the clear mirror of your eyes,
Through the soft cry of kiss to kiss,
Desolate winds assail with cries
The shadowy garden where love is.
And soon shall love dissolved be
When over us the wild winds blow—
But you, dear love, too dear to me,
Alas! why will you use me so?
—James Joyce, from Chamber Music (1907).
