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To a Child
Song Cycle by Stanley Grill (b. 1953)
songs to poems by W. B. Yeats soprano & string quartet
1. Prelude
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2. To a Child Dancing in the Wind  [sung text checked 1 time]
Dance there upon the shore; What need have you to care For wind or water's roar? And tumble out your hair That the salt drops have wet; Being young you have not known The fool's triumph, nor yet Love lost as soon as won, Nor the best labourer dead And all the sheaves to bind. What need have you to dread The monstrous crying of wind?
Authorship:
- by William Butler Yeats (1865 - 1939), "To a child dancing in the wind"
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Note: also sometimes titled "To a Child dancing upon the shore"First published in Poetry, Chicago (December 1912), revised 1913
Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]
3. Interlude I
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4. A Cradle Song  [sung text checked 1 time]
The angels are [stooping]1, above your bed; They weary of trooping with the whimpering dead. God's laughing in heaven to see you so good; The [Shining]2 Seven are gay with His mood. [I kiss you and kiss you, my pigeon my own. Ah how I shall miss you when you have grown.]3
Authorship:
- by William Butler Yeats (1865 - 1939), "A cradle song", appears in The Rose, first published 1893
See other settings of this text.
Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):
- ITA Italian (Italiano) (Ferdinando Albeggiani) , "Una ninna nanna", copyright © 2012, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
First published in Scots Observer, April 1890; revised 1901
1 Grill: "singing"
2 Ebel, Grill: "Sailing"
3 Ebel: "I sigh that kiss you, for I must own/ That I shall miss you when you have grown."; Grill: "I sigh that kiss you, for I must own/ That I shall miss you when you have gone."
Research team for this page: Ted Perry , Malcolm Wren [Guest Editor]
5. Interlude II
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6. Two Years Later  [sung text checked 1 time]
Has no one said those daring Kind eyes should be more learn'd? Or warned you how despairing The moths are when they are burned, I could have warned you, but you are young, So we speak a different tongue. O you will take whatever's offered And dream that all the world's a friend, Suffer as your mother suffered, Be as broken in the end. But I am old and you are young, And I speak a [barbarous]1 tongue.
Authorship:
- by William Butler Yeats (1865 - 1939), "Two years later"
See other settings of this text.
View original text (without footnotes)1 Grill: "different"
Research team for this page: Emily Ezust [Administrator] , Malcolm Wren [Guest Editor]
7. Interlude III
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8. The Pity of Love  [sung text checked 1 time]
A pity beyond all telling Is hid in the heart of love: The [folk]1 who are buying and selling, The clouds on their journey above, The cold, wet winds ever blowing, And the shadowy hazel grove Where mouse-grey waters are flowing Threaten the head that I love.
Authorship:
- by William Butler Yeats (1865 - 1939), "The pity of love", appears in The Countess Kathleen and Various Legends and Lyrics, first published 1892
See other settings of this text.
Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):
- FRE French (Français) (Guy Laffaille) , "La pitié de l'amour", copyright © 2016, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
- IRI Irish (Gaelic) [singable] (Gabriel Rosenstock) , "Trua an Ghrá", copyright © 2016, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
1 Grill: "folks"
Research team for this page: Emily Ezust [Administrator] , Malcolm Wren [Guest Editor]
9. Postlude
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