The last rose of summer - Benjamin Britten - Stephen Sands, tenor 

Stephen Sands, tenor (StephenSands.net)
Dan Foster, piano
Taakandi Ando, technical director
The last rose of summer
Thomas Moore, poet
Benjamin Britten, music
‘Tis the last rose of summer,
left blooming alone;
All her lovely companions
Are faded and gone;
No flower of her kindred,
No rose-bud is nigh,
To reflect back her blushes
Or give sigh for sigh!
I’ll not leave thee, thou lone one.
To pine on the stem;
Since the lovely are sleeping,
Go, sleep thou with them;
Thus kindly I scatter
Thy leaves o’er the bed,
Where thy mates of the garden
Lie scentless and dead.
So soon may I follow,
When friendships decay,
And from love’s shining circle
The gems drop away!
When true hearts lie wither’d,
And fond ones are flown,
Oh! who would inhabit
This bleak world alone?