There be none of Beauty's daughters With a magic like thee; And like music on the waters Is thy sweet voice to me: When, as if its sound were causing The [charmèd]1 ocean's pausing, The waves lie still and gleaming, And the lull'd winds seem dreaming: And the midnight moon is weaving Her bright chain o'er the deep; Whose breast is gently heaving As an infant's asleep: So the spirit bows before thee, To listen and adore thee; With a full but soft emotion, Like the swell of Summer's ocean.
Thoughts of Youth
Song Cycle by David Arditti (b. 1964)
1. Stanzas for Music  [sung text checked 1 time]
Authorship:
- by George Gordon Noel Byron, Lord Byron (1788 - 1824), "Stanzas for music", appears in Poems, first published 1816
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Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):
- CAT Catalan (Català) (Salvador Pila) , copyright © 2023, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
- CZE Czech (Čeština) (Jaroslav Vrchlický) , "Sloky pro hudbu"
- DUT Dutch (Nederlands) [singable] (Lau Kanen) , copyright © 2017, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
- FRE French (Français) (Alexis Paulin Pâris) , "Stances à mettre en musique"
- ITA Italian (Italiano) (Ferdinando Albeggiani) , "Fra tutte le più belle", copyright © 2009, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
1 Mendelssohn: "charm'd"
Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]
2. My Lost Youth  [sung text checked 1 time]
Often I think of the beautiful town
That is seated by the sea;
Often in thought go up and down
The pleasant streets of that dear old town,
And my youth comes back to me.
And a verse of a Lapland song
Is haunting my memory still:
"A boy's will is the wind's will,
And the thoughts of youth are long, long thoughts."
I can see the shadowy lines of its trees,
And catch, in sudden gleams,
The sheen of the far-surrounding seas,
And islands that were the Hesperides
Of all my boyish dreams.
And the burden of that old song,
It murmurs and whispers still:
"A boy's will is the wind's will,
And the thoughts of youth are long, long thoughts."
I remember the black wharves and the slips,
And the sea-tides tossing free;
And Spanish sailors with bearded lips,
And the beauty and mystery of the ships,
And the magic of the sea.
And the voice of that wayward song
Is singing and saying still:
"A boy's will is the wind's will,
And the thoughts of youth are long, long thoughts."
I remember the bulwarks by the shore,
And the fort upon the hill;
The sunrise gun, with its hollow roar,
The drum-beat repeated o'er and o'er,
And the bugle wild and shrill.
And the music of that old song
Throbs in my memory still:
"A boy's will is the wind's will,
And the thoughts of youth are long, long thoughts."
Strange to me now are the forms I meet
When I visit the dear old town;
But the native air is pure and sweet,
And the trees that o'ershadow each well-known street,
As they balance up and down,
Are singing the beautiful song,
Are sighing and whispering still:
"A boy's will is the wind's will,
And the thoughts of youth are long, long thoughts."
[ ... ]
Authorship:
- by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807 - 1882), appears in The Courtship of Miles Standish, and Other Poems, first published 1858
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Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]3. Loveliest of trees  [sung text checked 1 time]
Loveliest of trees, the cherry now Is hung with bloom along the bough, And stands about the woodland ride Wearing white for Eastertide. Now, of my threescore years and ten, Twenty will not come again, And take from seventy [springs]1 a score, It only leaves me fifty more. And since to look at things in bloom Fifty springs are little room, About the [woodlands]2 I will go To see the cherry hung with snow.
Authorship:
- by Alfred Edward Housman (1859 - 1936), no title, appears in A Shropshire Lad, no. 2, first published 1896
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Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):
- FRE French (Français) (Patricia Dillard Eguchi) , copyright © 2018, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
- HEB Hebrew (עברית) (Max Mader) , "היפה בעצים", copyright © 2014, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
1 Manton: "years"
2 Steele: "woodland"
Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]
4. The time of roses  [sung text checked 1 time]
It was not in the Winter Our loving lot was cast; It was the time of roses - We pluck'd them as we [pass'd]1! [That]2 churlish season never frown'd On early lovers yet: O no - the world was newly crown'd With flowers [when first we]3 met! 'Twas twilight, and I bade you go, But still you held me fast; It was the time of roses - We pluck'd them as we pass'd!
Authorship:
- by Thomas Hood (1799 - 1845), "Time of Roses", from Literary Souvenirs, first published 1827
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View original text (without footnotes)Confirmed with The Oxford Book of English Verse: 1250–1900, Arthur Quiller-Couch, ed., 1919.
1 Stöhr: "passed" (only here, not in stanza 3)2 Stöhr: "The"
3 Arditti: "when we"
Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]