Koraus, "The Broken Heart," from Love's Progress

Koraus, "The Broken Heart," from Love's Progress: Five Songs on texts of John Donne
Live Recording 1-23-16
Chelsea Laggan, mezzo soprano
Matthew Koraus, piano
TEXT:
He is stark mad, whoever says,
That he hath been in love an hour,
Yet not that love so soon decays,
But that it can ten in less space devour;
Who will believe me, if I swear That I have had the plague a year?
Who would not laugh at me, if I should say I saw a flash of powder burn a day?
Ah, what a trifle is a heart,
If once into love's hands it come!
All other griefs allow a part
To other griefs, and ask themselves but some;
They come to us, but us love draws, He swallows us and never chaws:
By him, as by chain'd shot, whole ranks do die, He is the tyrant pike, our hearts the fry.
If 'twere not so, what did become
Of my heart when I first saw thee?
I brought a heart into the room,
But from the room I carried none with me.
If it had gone to thee, I know
Mine would have taught thine heart to show
More pity unto me: but Love, alas,
At one first blow did shiver it as glass.
Yet nothing can to nothing fall, Nor any place be empty quite,
Therefore I think my breast hath all
Those pieces still, though they be not unite;
And now, as broken glasses show A hundred lesser faces, so
.
My rags of heart can like, wish, and adore, But after one such love, can love no more.