by Matthew Arnold (1822 - 1888)
The mules, I think, will not be here...
Language: English
The mules, I think, will not be here this hour. They feel the cool wet turf under their feet By the stream-side, after the dusty lanes In which they have toil'd all night from Catania, And scarcely will they budge a yard. O Pan How gracious is the mountain at this hour! A thousand times have I been here alone Or with the revellers from the mountain towns, But never on so fair a morn; -- the sun Is shining on the brilliant mountain crests, And on the highest pines: but further down Here in the valley is in shade; the sward Is dark, and on the stream the mist still hangs; One sees one's foot-prints crush'd in the wet grass, One's breath curls in the air; and on these pines That climb from the stream's edge, the long grey tufts, Which the goats love, are jewell'd thick with dew.
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Authorship:
- by Matthew Arnold (1822 - 1888), appears in Empedocles on Etna, and Other Poems, in Empedocles on Etna, Act I, Scene 1, first published 1852 [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 Edward Elgar, Sir (1857 - 1934), "Callicles", 1913, unfinished [text not verified]
- by Martin Edward Fallas Shaw (1875 - 1958), "Song of Callicles", published 1913-4. [SSA chorus and piano] [text not verified]
Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]
This text was added to the website: 2009-01-09
Line count: 17
Word count: 150