If my Complaints could Passions Move

John Dowland John Dowland

If my complaints could passions move,
Or make Love see wherein I suffer wrong:
My passions were enough to prove,
That my despairs had govern'd me too long.
O Love, I live and die in thee,
Thy grief in my deep sighs still speaks:
Thy wounds do freshly bleed in me,
My heart for thy unkindness breaks:
Yet thou dost hope when I despair,
And when I hope, thou mak'st me hope in vain.
Thou say'st thou canst my harms repair,
Yet for redress, thou let'st me still complain.

Can Love be rich, and yet I want?
Is Love my judge, and yet I am condemn'd?
Thou plenty hast, yet me dost scant:
Thou made a God, and yet thy power contemn'd.
That I do live, it is thy power:
That I desire it is thy worth:
If Love doth make men's lives too sour,
Let me not love, nor live henceforth.
Die shall my hopes, but not my faith,
That you that of my fall may hearers be
May here despair, which truly saith,
I was more true to Love than Love to me

  1. Can she Excuse my Wrongs?
  2. Go Crystal Tears
  3. If my Complaints could Passions Move
  4. My Thoughts are Wing'd with Hopes
  5. Now, o Now, I Needs must Part
  6. Fine knacks for ladies
  7. Flow, my tears
  8. Come again
View all John Dowland songs

Most popular topics in John Dowland songs

Related artists

  1. Johann Sebastian Bach
    Johann Sebastian Bach
  2. Guillaume de Machaut
    Guillaume de Machaut
  3. Franz Schubert
    Franz Schubert
  4. Henry Purcell
    Henry Purcell
  5. Johann Sebastian Bach
    Johann Sebastian Bach
  6. Dietrich Buxtehude
    Dietrich Buxtehude
  7. andreas scholl
    andreas scholl
  8. Jean-Philippe Rameau
    Jean-Philippe Rameau