The spring, my dear, Is no longer spring. Does the blackbird sing What he sang last year? Are the skies the old Immemorial blue? Or am I, or are you, Grown cold? Though life be change, It is hard to bear When the old sweet air Sounds forced and strange. To be out of tune, Plain You and I . . . It were better to die, And soon!
Two Songs
by Maude Valérie White (1855 - 1937)
1. Last year  [sung text not yet checked]
Language: English
Authorship:
- by William Ernest Henley (1849 - 1903), no title, appears in A Book of Verses, first published 1888
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Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]2. The Fifes of June  [sung text not yet checked]
Language: English
The ways are green with the gladdening sheen Of the young year's fairest daughter. O, the shadows that fleet o'er the springing wheat! O, the magic of running water! The spirit of spring is in every thing, The banners of spring are streaming, We march to a tune from the fifes of June, And life's a dream worth dreaming. It's all very well to sit and spell At the lesson there's no gainsaying; But what the deuce are wont and use When the whole mad world's a-maying? When the meadow glows, and the orchard snows, And the air's with love-motes teeming, When fancies break, and the senses wake, O, life's a dream worth dreaming! What Nature has writ with her lusty wit Is worded so wisely and kindly That whoever has dipped in her manuscript Must up and follow her blindly. Now the summer prime is her blithest rhyme In the being and the seeming, And they that have heard the overword Know life's a dream worth dreaming.
Authorship:
- by William Ernest Henley (1849 - 1903), no title, appears in A Book of Verses, first published 1888
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Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]Total word count: 237