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.
Five songs on English poems
Song Cycle by Daan Manneke (b. 1939)
1. L'envoi  [sung text not yet checked]
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]
2. Heaven‑Haven  [sung text not yet checked]
I have desired to go Where springs not fail, To fields where flies no sharp and sided hail And a few lilies blow. And I have asked to be Where no storms come, Where the green swell is in the havens dumb, And out of the swing of the sea.
Authorship:
- by Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844 - 1889), "Heaven-Haven", subtitle: "A nun takes the veil", appears in Lyra Sacra: A Book of Religious Verse, first published 1895
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Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):
- GER German (Deutsch) [singable] (Bertram Kottmann) , subtitle: "Sie geht ins Kloster", copyright © 2018, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
3. The author's epitaph  [sung text not yet checked]
Even such is Time, that takes in trust Our youth, our joys, our all we have, And pays us but with [age]1 and dust; Who, in the dark and silent grave, When we have wandered all our ways, Shuts up the story of our days; [And from which earth, and grave, and dust]2, [The Lord]3 shall raise me up, I trust.
Authorship:
- by Walter Raleigh, Sir (1552? - 1618), "Epitaph", found in his Bible in the Gate House at Westminster.
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Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):
- GER German (Deutsch) (Richard Flatter) , "Der Abschluß", appears in Die Fähre, Englische Lyrik aus fünf Jahrhunderten, first published 1936
1 Gurney: "earth"
2 Gurney: "But from this earth, this grave, this dust"
3 Gurney: "My God"
Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]
4. The world a hunting is  [sung text not yet checked]
This world a hunting is, The prey poor man, The Nimrod fierce is death. His speedy greyhounds are Lust, sickness, envy, care, Strife that ne'er falls amiss, With all those ills which haunt us While we breathe. Now if by chance we fly Of these the eager chase, Old age with stealing pace Casts up his nets, and there we panting die.
Authorship:
- by William Drummond of Hawthornden (1585 - 1649)
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Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]5. Silence  [sung text not yet checked]
There is a silence where hath been no sound, There is a silence where no sound may be, In the cold grave--under the deep deep sea, Or in wide desert where no life is found, Which hath been mute, and still must sleep profound; No voice is hush'd--no life treads silently, But clouds and cloudy shadows wander free. That never spoke, over the idle ground: But in green ruins, in the desolate walls Of antique palaces, where Man hath been, Though the dun fox, or wild hyaena, calls, And owls, that flit continually between, Shriek to the echo, and the low winds moan, -- There the true Silence is, self-conscious and alone.
Authorship:
- by Thomas Hood (1799 - 1845), "Sonnet: Silence"
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First published in London Magazine, 1823Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]