Oh, says the linnet, if I sing, My love forsook me in the spring and nevermore will I be seen without my satin gown of green. Oh, says the pretty featered jay, Now my love is gone away And foro the memory of my dear A feather of each sort I'll wear. Oh, says the rook and eke the crow, The reason why in black we go Because our love has us forsook, So pity us poor crow and rook! Oh, says the pretty speckled thrush That changes its note from bush to bush, My love has left me here alone, I fear she never will return.
The Aviary
Song Cycle by Richard Rodney Bennett (1936 - 2012)
1. The birds' lament  [sung text not yet checked]
Authorship:
- by John Clare (1793 - 1864), "Birds' lament", appears in Madrigals and Chronicles, first published 1924
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Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]2. The owl  [sung text not yet checked]
When cats run home and light is come And dew is cold upon the ground, And the far-off stream is dumb, And the whirring sail goes round; Alone and warming his five wits, The white owl in the belfry sits. When merry milkmaids click the latch, And rarely smells the new-mown hay, And the cock hath sung beneath the thatch Twice or thrice his round-e-lay; Alone and warming his five wits, The white owl in the belfry sits.
Authorship:
- by Alfred Tennyson, Lord (1809 - 1892), "Song -- The owl", appears in Poems, Chiefly Lyrical, first published 1830
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Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):
- GER German (Deutsch) (Bertram Kottmann) , "Die weiße Uhl", copyright © 2007, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
3. The early nightingale  [sung text not yet checked]
When first we hear the shy-come nightingales, They seem to mutter oer their songs in fear, And, climb we eer so soft the spinney rails, All stops as if no bird was anywhere. The kindled bushes with the young leaves thin Let curious eyes to search a long way in, Until impatience cannot see or hear The hidden music; gets but little way Upon the path--when up the songs begin, Full loud a moment and then low again. But when a day or two confirms her stay Boldly she sings and loud for half the day; And soon the village brings the woodman's tale Of having heard the newcome nightingale.
Authorship:
- by John Clare (1793 - 1864), "Early Nightingale", appears in John Clare: Poems, first published 1920
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Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]4. The widow bird  [sung text not yet checked]
A widow bird sate mourning for her love Upon a wintry bough, The frozen wind crept on above; The freezing stream below. There was no leaf upon the forest bare, No [flower]1 upon the ground And little motion in the air, Except the mill-wheel's sound.
Authorship:
- by Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792 - 1822), no title, appears in Charles the First
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Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):
- CZE Czech (Čeština) (Jaroslav Vrchlický) , "Píseň"
- ITA Italian (Italiano) (Ferdinando Albeggiani) , "Un passero solitario il suo amore lamenta", copyright © 2009, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
Some settings use the modernized spelling "sat" instead of "sate"
1 Treharne: "flowers".
Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]
5. The lark  [sung text not yet checked]
Do you ask what the birds say? The Sparrow, the Dove, The Linnet and Thrush say " I love and I love!" In the winter they're silent -- the wind is so strong; What it says, I don't know, but it sings a loud song. But green leaves, and blossoms, and sunny warm weather, And singing and loving -- all come back together. But the Lark is so brimful of gladness and love, The green fields below him, the blue sky above, That he sings, and he sings; and forever sings he -- "I love my Love, and my Love loves me!"
Authorship:
- by Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772 - 1834), "Answer to a child's question"
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Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]