by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807 - 1882)
As a fond mother, when the day is o'er
Language: English
As a fond mother, when the day is o'er, Leads by the hand her little child to bed, Half willing, half reluctant to be led, And leave his broken playthings on the floor, Still gazing at them through the open door, Nor wholly reassured and comforted By promises of others in their stead, Which, though more splendid, may not please him more; So Nature deals with us, and takes away Our playthings one by one, and by the hand Leads us to rest so gently, that we go Scarce knowing if we wish to go or stay, Being too full of sleep to understand How far the unknown transcends the what we know.
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Authorship:
- by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807 - 1882), "Nature", appears in Masque of Pandora and Other Poems, first published 1875 [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 Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco (1895 - 1968), "Nature", op. 149 (Two Longfellow Songs) no. ?, published 1962 [ SATB chorus a cappella ] [sung text not yet checked]
- by Amy Elise Horrocks (1867 - 1919), "As a fond mother", published c1890 [ voice, piano, and violin obbligato ], from Twelve Songs [sung text not yet checked]
- by Richard Stöhr (1874 - 1967), "Nature", op. 104a (Ten Songs) no. 10 (1944), published 2015 [ voice and piano ], unpublished; manuscript at Saint Michael's College Archives and available in scanned form at the Petrucci Music Library [sung text checked 1 time]
Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]
This text was added to the website: 2008-06-20
Line count: 14
Word count: 113