Some showed me Life as 'twere a royal game, Shining in every colour of the sun, With prizes to be played for, one by one, Love, riches, fame. Some showed me Life as 'twere a terrible fight, A ceasless striving 'gainst unnumbered foes, A battle ever harder to the close, Ending in night. Thou - Thou dids't make of Life a vision deep Of the deep happiness the spirit feels When heavenly music Heaven itself reveals And passions sleep.
English Lyrics, Ninth Set
by Charles Hubert Hastings Parry, Sir (1848 - 1918)
1. Three aspects  [sung text checked 1 time]
Authorship:
- by Mary Coleridge (1861 - 1907), "Three aspects", appears in Poems, no. 161, first published 1907
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Researcher for this page: John Fowler2. A fairy town  [sung text checked 1 time]
While the sun was going down, There arose a fairy town. Not the town I saw by day, Cheerless, joyless, dull and gray, But a far, fantastic place, Builded with ethereal grace, Shimmering in a tender mist That the slanting rays had kissed Ere they let their latest fire Touch with gold each slender spire. There no men and women be: Mermen, maidens of the sea, Combing out their tangled locks, Sit and sing amound the rocks. As their ruddy harps they sound With the seaweed twisted round, In the shining sand below See the city downward go!
Authorship:
- by Mary Coleridge (1861 - 1907), "St. Andrew's", appears in Poems, no. 26, first published 1907
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Researcher for this page: John Fowler3. The witches' wood  [sung text checked 1 time]
There was a wood, a witches' wood, All the trees therein were pale; They bore no branches green and good But as it were a gray nun's veil. They talked and chattered in the wind From morning dawn to set of sun, Like men and women that have sinned, Whose thousand evil tongues are one. Their roots were like the hands of men, Grown hard and brown with clutching gold, Their foliage women's tresses when The hair is withered, thin and old. There never did a sweet bird sing. For happy love about his nest. The clustered bats on evil wing Each hollow trunk and bough possessed. And in the midst a pool there lay Of water white, as tho' a scare Had frightened off the eye of day And kept the Moon reflected there.
Authorship:
- by Mary Coleridge (1861 - 1907), "The witches' wood", appears in Poems, no. 64, first published 1907
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Researcher for this page: John Fowler4. Whether I live  [sung text checked 1 time]
Whether I live, or whether I die, Whatever the worlds I see, I shall come to you by-and-by, And you will come to me. Whoever was foolish, we were wise, We crossed the boundary line, I saw my soul look out of your eyes, You saw your soul in mine.
Authorship:
- by Mary Coleridge (1861 - 1907), no title, appears in Poems, no. 117, first published 1907
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Researcher for this page: John Fowler5. Armida's garden  [sung text checked 1 time]
I have been there before thee, O my love! Each winding way I know and all the flowers, The shadowy cypress trees, the twilight grove, Where rest, in fragrant sleep, the enchanted hours. I have been there before thee. At the end There stands a gate through which thou too must pass. When thou shalt reach it, God in mercy send Thou say no bitterer word, love, than "Alas!"
Authorship:
- by Mary Coleridge (1861 - 1907), "Armida's garden", appears in Poems, no. 35, first published 1907
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Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):
- CAT Catalan (Català) (Sílvia Pujalte Piñán) , "El jardí d'Armida", copyright © 2013, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
6. The maiden  [sung text checked 1 time]
Who was this that came by the way, When the flowers were springing? She bore in her hair the buds of May, And a bird on her shoulder, singing. A girdle of the fairest green Her slender waist confined, And such a flame was never seen As in her eyes there shined. By the way she came, that way she went, And took the sunlight with her. The May of life shall all be spent Ere she again come hither!
Authorship:
- by Mary Coleridge (1861 - 1907), "The maiden", appears in Poems, no. 169, first published 1907
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Researcher for this page: John Fowler7. There  [sung text checked 1 time]
There, in that other world, what waits for me? What shall I find after that other birth? No stormy, tossing, foaming, smiling sea, But a new earth. No sun to mark the changing of the days, No slow, soft falling of the alternate night, No moon, no star, no light upon my ways, Only the Light. No gray cathedral, wide and wondrous fair, That I may tread where all my fathers trod. Nay, nay, my soul, no house of God is there, But only God.
Authorship:
- by Mary Coleridge (1861 - 1907), "There", appears in Poems, no. 201, first published 1907
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Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]