be still my beating heart

THE LYRICS?
Are you referring to the lyrics by Sting? Or, to the "original" place where Sting found that phrase - if there was one? Here's his site with the lyrics:

http://www.sting.com/discography/lyrics/lybestil.html[/color]

be still my beating heart
I was referring not to the lyrics, I didn't even know that Sting had recorded such a record, but rather to the original phrase. You would think it would be said by a woman in some kind of romance novel. But that's merely a guess
Joel Margolis
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Let my heart be still a moment and this mystery explore....

I'm pretty sure it's Shakespeare... checking.

Hmm... not coming up with anything, which means it probably isn't...

I'd say the guess about the romance novel is not far off, but i haven't a clue as to the actual origin--i just know its been in the culture for a long, long time . . .

I didn't find it in Shakespeare search engines. (Several "beating hearts" and quite a few "be stills" but never together.)

I did find this website: http://stingetc.com/stingaol.shtml which is an online interview with Sting. Here's the relevant part:

Question: My favorite song is Be Still My Beating Heart, what inspired you for that song? I have always been like that..rushing in with my emotions showing. I've always wondered what you were thinking of when you wrote that song.

Sting: Be Still My Beating Heart is a phrase I think I stole from Shakespeare although I've no idea from which play. When I was writing that song I was in love, and I'm still in love, which is nice.

-sigh- I useta have SUCH a crush on him...

This is an interesting question! Thought it would have an obvious answer, but guess not. Cool.

sounds like a suicide note to me...

My guess would be a forgotten melodrama from Victorian times--or perhaps the comment was cycled through a number of heart rending melodramas.

The comment is obviously an aside--a theatrical convention in which the actor addresses himself.

This monologue could allow time for set changes or permit the audience to be filled in on necessary exposition or just offer an opportunity for some rip-roarin', scenery-chewin', DRAmatic expression.

Oh, Craven was quoting Poe! Duh. I wonder if that WAS the origin, then re-arranged...?

(Did I tell you that E.G. has taught "The Raven" to the sozlet? She's got most of the first two stanzas.)

Also "So that now, to still the beating of my heart, I stood repeating..."

http://www.heise.de/ix/raven/Literature/Lore/TheRaven.html

How does the Sozlet do with "many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore?"

Teach her Annabelle Lee next . . .

So all the night tide
I lay down by the side
Of my lover, my lover
My wife and my bride
In her tomb by the sounding sea
In her sepulchre by the the sea.

I will!

There's a lotta phonetic mumbling, but she does it. "Nevermore!" is crystal, though. (Her favorite part.)

Hmm, be careful with that, I once came to blows with a parrot who refused to learn to recite it.

You should get her some Ogden Nash . . .

The Cow

The cow is of the bovine ilk;
One end is moo, the other, milk.


The Guppy

Whales have calves,
Cats have kittens,
Bears have cubs,
Bats have bittens,
Swans have cygnets,
Seals have puppies,
But guppies just have little guppies.



The Firefly

The firefly's flame Is something for which science has no name
I can think of nothing eerier
Than flying around with an unidentified glow on a
person's posteerier.



The Termite

Some primal termite knocked on wood
And tasted it, and found it good!
And that is why your Cousin May
Fell through the parlor floor today.


I went looking for his stuff, 'cause i know the Sozlet will love this stuff, if not now, then in years to come. Here's where i found that: Ogden Nash online[/color]

She does! Also Edward Lear:

O was once a little owl,
Owly,
Prowly,
Howly,
Owly,
Browny fowly,
Little owl!

Thanks for the site!

At any rate, sorry to hijack (LOL at Craven -- couldn't you have just taught it "Nevermore"?).

(Quick disclaimer... the version of "the Raven" that I have seen the sozlet recite did NOT align with the version I read on the Internet, and I just wrote to E.G. and asked him if he has a special version somewhere. He admitted that he just hadn't remembered the poem right, and taught her his misremembered version. So "Nevermore!"-ing happens in the first two stanzas, and it's much more straightforward.)