1928
The Breath of a Rose
Composed by 
William Grant Still
William Grant Still Text by 
Langston Hughes
Langston Hughes Still set Hughes' poem in 1928, two years before writing his famous Afro-American Symphony.
Text
Breath of a Rose
by Langston Hughes
Love is like dew
On lilacs at dawn:
Comes the swift sun
And the dew is gone.
Love is like star-light
In the sky at morn:
Star-light that dies
When day is born.
Love is like perfume
In the heart of a rose:
The flower withers,
The perfume goes–
Love is no more
Than the breath of a rose,
No more
Than the breath of a rose.
–The Collected Poems of Langston Hughes, p. 305
Sheet Music