A short choral work or part-song setting a poem by A.E. Housman. Scored SATB. Available with an alternative liturgical text.
Original Poem
The sloe was lost in flower,
The April elm was dim;
That was the lover’s hour,
The hour for lies and him.
If thorns are all the bower,
If North winds freeze the fir,
Why, ’tis another’s hour,
The hour for truth and her.
A. E. Housman (1859–1936)
Alternative Text: “Thy Way, Not Mine, O Lord”
Thy way, not mine, O Lord,
However dark it be;
Lead me by Thine own hand,
Choose out the Path for me.
Not mine, not mine the choice,
In things both great and small;
Be Thou my guide, my strength,
My wisdom and my all.
Horatius Bonar (1808-1889)