I hate that drum's discordant sound, Parading round, and round, and round: To thoughtless youth it pleasure yields, And lures from cities and from fields, To sell their liberty for charms Of tawdry lace, and glittering arms; And when Ambition's voice commands, To march, and fight, and fall, in foreign lands. I hate that drum's discordant sound, Parading round, and round, and round; To me it talks of ravag'd plains, And burning towns, and ruin'd swains, And mangled limbs, and dying groans, And widows' tears, and orphans' moans; And all that Misery's hand bestows, To fill the catalogue of human woes.
Aftermath
Song Cycle by Ned Rorem (1923 - 2022)
1. The drum  [sung text checked 1 time]
Authorship:
- by John Scott of Amwell (1731 - 1783), "The drum"
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Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]2. The tigers of wrath [sung text not yet checked]
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The tygers of wrath are wiser than the horses of instruction.
[ ... ]
Authorship:
- by William Blake (1757 - 1827)
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Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):
- FRE French (Français) (Guy Laffaille) , "Proverbe V", copyright © 2009, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
There is no spark of reason in the world And all is raked in ashy heaps of beastliness.
Authorship:
- by John Marston (1575? - 1634), appears in The Malcontent
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Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]We for a certainty are not the first
Have sat in taverns while the tempest hurled
Their hopeful plans to emptiness, and cursed
Whatever brute and blackguard made the world.
[ ... ]
Authorship:
- by Alfred Edward Housman (1859 - 1936), no title, appears in Last Poems, no. 9, first published 1922
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Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]This is not what man hates, Yet he can curse but this. Harsh Gods and hostile Fates And dreams: this only is.
Authorship:
- by Matthew Arnold (1822 - 1888), no title, appears in Empedocles on Etna, and Other Poems, in Empedocles on Etna, Act I, Scene 2, lines 303-306, an excerpt of a lengthy monologue by Empedocles
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Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]3. The fury of the aerial bombardment  [sung text checked 1 time]
You would think the fury of aerial bombardment [ ... ]
Authorship:
- by Richard Eberhart (1904 - 2005), copyright ©
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This text may be copyright, so we will not display it until we obtain permission to do so or discover it is public-domain.4. The park  [sung text checked 1 time]
Here on these benches in the wan sun [ ... ]
Authorship:
- by John Hollander (b. 1929), copyright ©
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This text may be copyright, so we will not display it until we obtain permission to do so or discover it is public-domain.5. Sonnet LXIV  [sung text checked 1 time]
When I have seen by Time's fell hand defac'd The rich-proud cost of outworn buried age; When sometime lofty towers I see down-raz'd, And brass eternal slave to mortal rage; When I have seen the hungry ocean gain Advantage on the kingdom of the shore, And the firm soil win of the watery main, Increasing store with loss, and loss with store; When I have seen such interchange of state, Or state itself confounded, to decay; Ruin hath taught me thus to ruminate -- That Time will come and take my love away. This thought is as a death which cannot choose But weep to have, that which it fears to lose.
Authorship:
- by William Shakespeare (1564 - 1616), no title, appears in Sonnets, no. 64
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Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):
- FRE French (Français) (François-Victor Hugo) , no title, appears in Sonnets de Shakespeare, no. 64, first published 1857
6. On his seventy‑fifth birthday  [sung text checked 1 time]
I strove with none, for none was worth my strife: Nature I loved, and, next to Nature, Art: I warm'd both hands before the fire of Life; It sinks; and I am ready to depart.
Authorship:
- by Walter Savage Landor (1775 - 1864), "Dying Speech of an Old Philosopher"
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First published in the Examiner, February 1849.Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]
7. Grief  [sung text checked 1 time]
I tell you, hopeless grief is passionless; That only men incredulous of despair, Half-taught in anguish, through the midnight air Beat upward to God's throne in loud access Of shrieking and reproach. Full desertness In souls as countries lieth silent-bare Under the blanching, vertical eye-glare Of the absolute Heavens. Deep-hearted man, express Grief for thy Dead in silence like to death -- Most like a monumental statue set In everlasting watch and moveless woe Till itself crumble to the dust beneath. Touch it; the marble eyelids are not wet: If it could weep, it could arise and go.
Authorship:
- by Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806 - 1861)
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First published in Graham's Magazine, 1842, rev. 1844Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]
8. Remorse for any death
— This text is not currently
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as soon as we obtain it. —
Authorship:
- by Anonymous / Unidentified Author, copyright ©
Based on:
- a text in Spanish (Español) by Jorge Luis Borges (1899 - 1986), copyright © [text unavailable]
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This text may be copyright, so we will not display it until we obtain permission to do so or discover it is public-domain.9. Losses  [sung text checked 1 time]
It was not dying: everybody died [ ... ]
Authorship:
- by Randall Jarrell (1914 - 1965), copyright ©
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This text may be copyright, so we will not display it until we obtain permission to do so or discover it is public-domain.10. Then  [sung text checked 1 time]
When I am dead, even then [ ... ]
Authorship:
- by Muriel Rukeyser (1913 - 1980), copyright ©
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This text may be copyright, so we will not display it until we obtain permission to do so or discover it is public-domain.