by Thomas Hardy (1840 - 1928)
When I set out for Lyonnesse
Language: English
When I set out for Lyonnesse, A hundred miles away, The rime was on the spray, And starlight lit my lonesomeness When I set out for Lyonnesse A hundred miles away. What would bechance at Lyonnesse While I should sojourn there No prophet durst declare, Nor did the wisest wizard guess What would bechance at Lyonnesse While I should sojourn there. When I came back from Lyonnesse With magic in my eyes, [None managed to surmise What meant my godlike gloriousness]1, When I came back from Lyonnesse With magic in my eyes!
About the headline (FAQ)
View original text (without footnotes)1 There seem to be two versions of this poem. Finzi and the other version: "All marked with mute surmise / My radiance rare and fathomless" ; Gibbs mixes them: "All marked with mute surmise / What meant my godlike gloriousness"
Authorship:
- by Thomas Hardy (1840 - 1928), "When I set out for Lyonnesse", appears in Satires of Circumstance, Lyrics and Reveries with Miscellaneous Pieces, first published 1914 [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 Frederic Austin (1872 - 1952), "When I set out for Lyonnesse", published 1927 [ baritone and piano ], from Three Wessex Songs [sung text not yet checked]
- by Rutland Boughton (1878 - 1960), "A Song of Lyonnesse", 1923, published 1924 [ voice and strings or piano ], from Three Hardy Songs, no. 1 [sung text not yet checked]
- by James Burton (b. 1974), "When I set out for Lyonnesse" [ voice and piano ], confirmed with a concert programme booklet [sung text checked 1 time]
- by John Woods Duke (1899 - 1984), "When I set out for Lyonnesse", published 1953 [ voice and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
- by Gerald Finzi (1901 - 1956), "When I set out for Lyonnesse", op. 15 no. 2, published 1936 [ baritone, piano ], from Earth and Air and Rain, no. 2 [sung text checked 1 time]
- by Cecil Armstrong Gibbs (1889 - 1960), "Lyonnesse", published 1921 [ voice, piano ] [sung text checked 1 time]
- by Sidney Harrison (b. 1903), "When I set out for Lyonnesse", published 1929 [ voice, piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
- by Fritz Bennicke Hart (1874 - 1949), "When I set out for Lyonnesse", op. 120 (Five songs) no. 2 (1938) [ voice and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
- by Irwin Heilner (b. 1908), "When I set out for Lyonnesse", 1966 [sung text not yet checked]
- by Christopher Kaye Le Fleming (b. 1908), "When I set out for Lyonnesse", published 1963 [ soprano, tenor, satb chorus, orchestra ], from Six Country Songs [sung text not yet checked]
- by Tom M. McCourt , "When I set out for Lyonnesse", published 1937 [ 2-part chorus of treble voices, piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
- by Katharine E. O'Brien , "When I set out for Lyonnesse", published 1947 [sung text not yet checked]
- by John Theodore Livingston Raynor (1909 - 1970), "Lyonnesse", op. 109 (1946) [ voice and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
- by John Theodore Livingston Raynor (1909 - 1970), "Lyonnesse", op. 654 (1965) [sung text not yet checked]
- by Charles A. Speyer , "When I set out for Lyonnesse", published 1920 [ voice, piano ], from Six Selected Lyrics [sung text not yet checked]
- by Leslie Walters (1902 - 1998), "When I set out for Lyonnesse", published 1957 [sung text not yet checked]
Researcher for this page: Ted Perry
This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 18
Word count: 93