by Arthur Symons (1865 - 1945)
On the beach
Language: English
Night, a grey sky, a ghostly sea, The soft beginning of the rain. Black on the horizon, sails that wane Into the distance mistily. The tide is rising. I can hear The soft roar broadening along; It cries and murmurs in my ears A sleepy old forgotten song. Softly the stealthy night descends, The black sails fade into the sky; Is not this, where the sea-line ends, The shoreline of infinity? I cannot think or dream; the grey Unending waste of sea and night, Dull, impotently infinite, Blots out the very hope of day.
J. Becker sets stanzas 1-3
Authorship:
- by Arthur Symons (1865 - 1945), "On the beach", appears in Silhouettes, in At Dieppe, no. 2 [author's text not yet checked against a primary source]
Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive):
- by John Joseph Becker (1886 - 1961), "On the beach", published 1959, stanzas 1-3, from At Dieppe, no. 2. [text verified 1 time]
Researcher for this page: T. P. (Peter) Perrin
This text was added to the website: 2006-03-11
Line count: 16
Word count: 94