by William Drummond of Hawthornden (1585 - 1649)
Life a right shadow is
Language: English
Available translation(s): DUT
Life a right shadow is, For it is long to appear, then it is spent, and death's long night draws near: Shadows are moving, light, And is there aught so moving as is this? When it is most in sight, It steals away, and none can tell how, where, So near our cradles to our coffins are.
Authorship:
- by William Drummond of Hawthornden (1585 - 1649) [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 Gerald Finzi (1901 - 1956), "Life a right shadow is", op. 5 no. 1, published 1926, first performed 1936 [unaccompanied chorus], from Three Short Elegies, no. 1. [text verified 1 time]
Available translations, adaptations, and transliterations (if applicable):
- DUT Dutch (Nederlands) (Wim Reedijk) , title 1: "Leven, een schim niet meer", copyright ©, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
Researcher for this page: Wijtse Rodenburg
This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 11
Word count: 57