Very old are the woods; And the buds that break Out of the brier's boughs, When March winds wake, So old with their beauty are-- Oh, no man knows Through what wild centuries Roves back the rose. Very old are the brooks; And the rills that rise Where snow sleeps cold beneath The azure skies Sing such a history Of come and gone, Their every drop is as wise As Solomon. Very old are we men; Our dreams are tales Told in dim Eden By Eve's nightingales; We wake and whisper awhile, But, the day gone by, Silence and sleep like fields Of amaranth lie.
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First published in Thrush, Jan. 1910Authorship:
- by Walter De la Mare (1873 - 1956), "All that's past" [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 Gary Bachlund (b. 1947), "All that's past", 1986 [ medium voice and piano ] [sung text checked 1 time]
- by Lennox Randal Francis Berkeley, Sir (1903 - 1989), "All that's past", op. 65 no. 3 (1964), published 1966 [ high voice and guitar ], from Songs of the Half-Light, no. 3 [sung text not yet checked]
- by Frederic Bontoft , "All that's past", published 1950 [ voice and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
- by Dilys Elwyn-Edwards, née Roberts (b. 1918), "All that's past", published 1956 [ satb chorus a cappella ] [sung text not yet checked]
- by Gaynor D. Garrett , "All that's past", 1954 [ soprano or tenor and piano ], from Three Poems of Walter de la Mare [sung text not yet checked]
- by Ivor (Bertie) Gurney (1890 - 1937), "All that's past" [ voice and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
- by John Theodore Livingston Raynor (1909 - 1970), "All That's Past", op. 17 (1943) [ voice and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
- by Antony Roper , "All that's past", published 1963 [ chorus of 2 equal voices and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]
This text was added to the website: 2007-05-11
Line count: 24
Word count: 105