Twenty, forty, sixty, eighty A hundred years ago, All through the night with lantern bright The Watch trudged to and fro, And little boys tucked snug abed Would wake from dreams to hear - 'Two o' the morning by the clock, And the stars a-shining clear!' Or, when across the chimney-tops Screamed shrill a North-East gale, A faint and shaken voice would shout, 'Three! And a storm of hail!'
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Text Authorship:
- by Walter De la Mare (1873 - 1956), "Then", appears in Peacock Pie: A Book of Rhymes, in 2. Boys and Girls, no. 1, first published 1913 [author's text checked 1 time 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 Gary Bachlund (b. 1947), "Then", 2006 [ medium-high voice, piano ], from Pieces of Peacock Pie, no. 8 [sung text checked 1 time]
- by Cecil Armstrong Gibbs (1889 - 1960), "Then", 1932, published 1933 [ voice and piano ], from Five Children's Songs From Peacock Pie, no. 5 [sung text not yet checked]
Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]
This text was added to the website: 2007-04-25
Line count: 12
Word count: 68