The Roadside Fire, by Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872-1958), is from “Songs of Travel,” based on poems by Robert Louis Stevenson (1850-1894). It depicts a moment of joyous, passionate love experienced by a wandering traveler, contrasting with the more solitary and reflective nature of the rest of the cycle; the music is characterized by a lively, almost celebratory piano accompaniment that reflects the excitement of this newfound connection,as the traveler delights in envisioning a life and home with his love.

I will make you brooches and toys for your delight
Of bird-song at morning and star-shine at night,
I will make a palace fit for you and me
Of green days in forests, and blue days at sea.

I will make my kitchen, and you shall keep your room,
Where white flows the river and bright blows the broom;
And you shall wash your linen and keep your body white
In rainfall at morning and dewfall at night.

And this shall be for music when no one else is near,
The fine song for singing, the rare song to hear!
That only I remember, that only you admire,
Of the broad road that stretches and the roadside fire.

Originally composed in 1959 for mixed chorus and piano, Randall Thompson’s (1899-1984) Frostiana began as a commission from the town of Amherst, Massachusetts, to commemorate its bicentennial. Amherst is known for its association with famed American poet Robert Frost (1874-1963), who lived and taught there. Because Frost knew and admired Randall Thompson's music, the town decided that the commemorative work would be a setting of some of Frost's poetry. Thompson selected seven of Frost's poems, The Pasture being the second movement. Robert Frost himself attended the premier, and according to reports of the time, Frost was so delighted by the performance that at the conclusion of the piece he stood up and shouted, “Sing that again!”

The Coolin’ by Samuel Barber (1910-1981) is a musical interpretation of a poem by James Stephens, where the title translates to "The Fair-haired One" or "The Beloved One." The lyrics depict a passionate, almost dreamlike state of love in a natural setting, often interpreted as a tryst on a hillside, with the music capturing a sense of tender longing and gentle beauty; essentially, a celebration of love in the great outdoors.

Ständchen (Serenade) is one of Franz Schubert’s (1797-1828) best-known melodies, evocative of the stillness of the night and the lover’s heightened awareness of the sounds of nature that surround him. Written during the last months of the composer’s brief life of thirty-one years, Ständchen remains one of Schubert’s most well-loved songs, composed for voice and piano. Here the lover’s serenade calls softly to his beloved to join him in the night. Even with all the sensuality, intimacy, and tenderness of this love song, it is imbued with the implicit pain of yearning and unfulfilled desire.

Softly my songs plead through the night to you;
Down into the silent grove, beloved, come to me!
Slender treetops whisper and rustle in the moonlight;
My darling, do not fear that the hostile betrayer will overhear us.

Do you not hear the nightingales call? Ah, they are imploring you;
With their sweet, plaintive songs they are imploring for me.
They understand the heart’s yearning, they know the pain of love;
With their silvery notes they touch every tender heart.

Let your heart, too, be moved, beloved, hear me!
Trembling, I await you! Come, make me happy!

The young man in James Mulholland’s (b. 1935) Oh See How Thick the Goldcup Flowers uses the lovely meadows of flowers as an efficient seduction technique to further his amorous advances. The poem, from Alfred Edward Housman’s (1859-1936) A Shropshire Lad, is a dialogue between a young man and, it turns out, a rather clever girl. It is a very old tradition that spring is the time for “lass and lad,” a time for young romance; and it is in youth, the springtime of life, that “the blood runs gold” – it is a golden, precious time. So the smooth-tongued young man with seduction on his mind says that it is time to be happy “before the world is old,” meaning both before spring passes and before one grows old. He adds that what blooms today may bloom tomorrow as well, but it will never again be just as wonderful as it is right now. He is trying to convince the young woman to seize the moment, and he makes his move by saying “Suppose I wound my arm around…”  Beautifully put, but the wise girl is not convinced!

Nature is one of the greatest inspirations for songwriters. Gordon Matthew Thomas Sumner, known as Sting (b. 1951) concurs, with Fields of Gold, one of the finest examples from the 1990s, taking in the golden barley fields outside his 16th-century manor house in the heart of the English countryside. In Sting’s book, Lyrics, the songwriter explains the power of evocative landscapes: “In England, our house is surrounded by barley fields, and in the summer it’s fascinating to watch the wind moving over the shimmering surface, like waves on an ocean of gold. There’s something inherently sexy about the sight, something primal.” The fields provide the imagery, but the song is about a relationship. Told chronologically, Sting takes us through the uncertainty that we endure when we first fall for someone, pondering, “Will you be my love?” The song navigates its way through marriage, children, and, eventually, the inevitable final parting with a repetition of the exquisite line “you’ll remember me when the west wind moves.” He simply wants to be remembered “as they walk in fields of gold.” Fields of Gold is an introspective song about the beauties of deeply committed, long-term love.