O Solitude, My Sweetest Choice, Z.406 (Arr. Richard Boothby)

O solitude, my sweetest choice
Places devoted to the night
Remote from tumult and from noise
How ye my restless thoughts delight!

O heav'ns, what content is mine
To see those trees which have appear'd
From the nativity of time
And, from which all ages have rever'd
To look today as fresh and green
As when their beauties first were seen.

O, how agreeable a sight
These hanging mountains do appear
Which the unhappy would invite
To finish all their sorrows here
When their hard fate makes them endure
Such woes as only death can cure.

O! how I solitude adore!
That element of noblest wit
Where I have learnt Apollo's lore
Without the pains to study it.

For thy sake I in love am grown
With what thy fancy does persue
But when I think upon my own
I hate it for that reason too
Because it needs must hinder me
From seeing, and from serving thee.

O solitude! O! how I solitude adore!