In the dim light of the golden lamp The singer stands and sings. And the songs rise up like coloured bubbles Or birds with shining wings. And the movement of the merry or plaintive keys Sounds in the silent air Till the listener feels the room no more But only music there. But still from the sweet and rounded mouth The delicate sounds arise Like floating bubbles whose colours are The coloured melodies.
A First Volume of Ten Songs
by Ivor (Bertie) Gurney (1890 - 1937)
1. The singer  [sung text checked 1 time]
Authorship:
- by Edward Shanks (1892 - 1953), "The singer", appears in The Queen of China and Other Poems, first published 1919
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Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]2. The Latmian shepherd  [sung text not yet checked]
The moon's a drowsy fool to-night, Wrapped in fleecy clouds and white ; And all the while Endymion Sleeps on Latmos top alone. Not a single star is seen : They are gathered round their queen, Keeping vigil by her bed, Patient and unwearied. Now the poet drops his pen And moves about like other men : Tom o' Bedlam now is still And sleeps beneath the hawthorn'd hill. Only the Latmian shepherd deems Something missing from his dreams And tosses as he sleeps alone. Alas, alas, Endymion !
Authorship:
- by Edward Shanks (1892 - 1953), "Song for an unwritten play", appears in Poems, first published 1916
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Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]3. Black Stitchel  [sung text checked 1 time]
As I was lying on Black Stitchel The wind was blowing from the South And I was thinking of the laughters Of my love's mouth. As I was lying on Black Stitchel The wind was blowing from the West : And I was thinking of the quiet Of my love's breast. As I was lying on Black Stitchel The wind was blowing from the North And I was thinking of the countries Black with wrath. As I was lying on Black Stitchel The wind was blowing from the East : And I could think no more for pity Of man and beast.
Authorship:
- by Wilfrid Wilson Gibson (1878 - 1962), "Black Stitchel", appears in Whin, first published 1918
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Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]4. Down by the Salley Gardens  [sung text checked 1 time]
Down by the Salley Gardens my love and I did meet; She passed the Salley Gardens with little snow-white feet. She bid me take [love]1 easy, as the leaves grow on the [tree]2; But I, being young and foolish, with her [did]3 not agree. In a field by the river my love and I did stand, And on my leaning shoulder she laid her snow-white hand. She bid me take life easy, as the grass grows on the weirs; But I was young and foolish, and now am full of tears.
Authorship:
- by William Butler Yeats (1865 - 1939), title 1: "An old song re-sung", title 2: "Down by the Salley Gardens", appears in The Wanderings of Oisin and Other Poems, first published 1889
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Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):
- FRE French (Français) (Pierre Mathé) , copyright © 2016, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
- FRI Frisian (Geart van der Meer) , "Bij de marswâl", copyright © 2013, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
- GER German (Deutsch) (Sharon Krebs) , copyright © 2015, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
Retitled "Down by the Salley Gardens" with the subtitle "An old song re-sung" when republished in Poems in 1895.
Note: "salley" is an anglicized form of the Irish word "saileach", which means willow.
1 Gurney: "life"2 Edmunds: "trees"
3 Edmunds, Gurney: "would"
Researcher for this page: Ted Perry
5. All night under the moon  [sung text checked 1 time]
All night under the moon Plovers are flying Over the dreaming meadows of silvery light, Over the meadows of June Calling and crying, Wandering voices of love in the hush of the night. All night under the moon Love, though we are lying Quietly under the thatch, in the dreaming light Over the meadows of June Together we are flying, Wandering voices of love in the hush of the night.
Authorship:
- by Wilfrid Wilson Gibson (1878 - 1962), "For G.", appears in Friends, first published 1916
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Researcher for this page: Ted Perry6. Nine of the clock  [sung text checked 1 time]
Nine of the clock, oh! Wake my lazy head! Your shoes of red morocco, Your silk bedgown; Rouse, rouse, speck-eyed Mary From your high bed! A yawn, a smile, sleepy-starey Mary climbs down. "Good-morning to my brothers, Good-day to the Sun, Haloo, haloo to the lily white sheep That up the mountain run."
Authorship:
- by Robert Graves (1895 - 1985), as John Doyle, no title, appears in Country Sentiment, in Nine o'clock, part 1, first published 1920
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Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]7. You are my sky  [sung text checked 1 time]
You are my sky; beneath your circling kindness My meadows all take in the light and grow; Laugh with the joy you've given, The joy you've given, And open in a thousand buds, and blow. But when you are sombre, sad, averse, forgetful, Heavily veiled by clouds that brood with rain, Dumbly I lie all shadowed, I lie all shadowed, And dumbly wait for you to shine again.
Authorship:
- by John Collings Squire, Sir (1884 - 1958), "Song", appears in Poems, second series, first published 1922
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Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]8. Ha'nacker Mill  [sung text checked 1 time]
Sally is gone that was so kindly Sally is gone from Ha'nacker Hill. And the Briar grows ever since then so blindly [ And ever since then the clapper is still,]1 And the sweeps have fallen from Ha'nacker Mill. Ha'nacker Hill is in Desolation: Ruin a-top and a field unploughed. And Spirits that call on a fallen nation [ Spirits that loved her calling aloud:]1 Spirits abroad in a windy cloud. Spirits that call and no one answers; Ha'nacker's down and England's done. Wind and Thistle for pipe and dancers And never a ploughman under the Sun. Never a ploughman. Never a one.
Authorship:
- by (Joseph) Hilaire Belloc (1870 - 1953), appears in Sonnets and Verse (1923), first published 1923
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View original text (without footnotes)1 omitted by Warlock.
Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]
9. When Death to either shall come  [sung text checked 1 time]
[When]1 Death to either shall come, - I pray it be first to me,- Be happy as ever at home, If so, as I wish, it be. Possess thy [heart]2, my own; And sing to the child on thy knee, [Or]3 read to thyself alone The songs [that I]4 made for thee.
Authorship:
- by Robert Seymour Bridges (1844 - 1930), no title, appears in New Poems, first published 1899
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View original text (without footnotes)1 Gurney: "If"
2 Gurney: "soul"
3 Gurney: "And"
4 Gurney: "I have"
Researcher for this page: David K. Smythe
10. Cathleen ni Houlihan  [sung text checked 1 time]
The old brown thorn-trees break in two high over Cummen Strand, Under a bitter black wind that blows from the left hand; Our courage breaks like an old tree in a black wind and dies, But we have hidden in our hearts the flame out of the eyes Of Cathleen, the daughter of Houlihan. The wind has bundled up the clouds high above Knocknarea, And thrown the thunder on the stones for all that Maeve can say. Angers that are like noisy clouds have set out hearts abeat; But we have all bent low and low and kissed the quiet feet Of Cathleen, the daughter of Houlihan. The yellow pool has overflowed high up on Clooth-na-Bare, For the wet winds are blowing out of the clinging air; Like heavy flooded waters our bodies and our blood; But purer than a tall candle before the Holy Rood Is Cathleen, the daughter of Houlihan.
Authorship:
- by William Butler Yeats (1865 - 1939), "Cathleen, the Daughter of Hoolihan", from Broad Sheet (April 1903), revised same year and in 1906
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Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]