Romance
Composer(s): Sigmund Romberg;
Otto Harbach; Oscar Hammerstein II
Performer(s): Mario Lanza;
and various other artists



Romance, a playboy who is born each spring
To teach the nightingale to sing
A very pretty song: "I love you"

Romance, a legend on an old brocade
A prince who tells a country maid: "I love you"

Now where this whimsy comes from, I don't know
For when it comes it's just about to go

Romance, a flower that will bloom awhile
With sunshine from a lover's smile
That lover's tears bedew! Ah!

Yet, when I seek this beauty
Flower of youth's first dawning
I find a prosy work-a-day world
Stretching and yawning!

Love is locked up in cages
Kept for a poet's pages
Life and adventure
Don't seem to be paying attention to me!

And so I dream of fair Romance
And let my fancies weave pretty stories
And tho' I know they are not so
I like to go wand'ring amid their wistful glories

My princes become what I mould them
And they stay for the breath of a sigh!
I open my arms to enfold them
And they're gone like a breeze rushing by

Ah, this is a humdrum world
But when I dream I set it dancing
When life is gray, I have a way to keep it gay
Passing the time of day with love