by Alfred Edward Housman (1859 - 1936)
Farewell to barn and stack and tree
Language: English
"Farewell to barn and stack and tree, Farewell to Severn shore. Terence, look your last at me, For I come home no more. "The sun burns on the half-mown hill, By now the blood is dried; And Maurice amongst the hay lies still And my knife is in his side. "My mother thinks us long away; 'Tis time the field were mown. She had two sons at rising day, Tonight she'll be alone. "And here's a bloody hand to shake, And oh, man, here's good-bye; We'll sweat no more on scythe and rake, My bloody hands and I. "I wish you strength to bring you pride, And a love to keep you clean, And I wish you luck, come Lammastide, At racing on the green. "Long for me the rick will wait, And long will wait the fold, And long will stand the empty plate, And dinner will be cold."
E. Moeran sets stanzas 1-3, 6
Authorship:
- by Alfred Edward Housman (1859 - 1936), appears in A Shropshire Lad, no. 8, first published 1896 [author's text checked 2 times 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 Ernest John Moeran (1894 - 1950), "Farewell to barn and stack and tree", R. 9 no. 2 (1920), published 1924, stanzas 1-3,6 [ baritone and piano ], from Ludlow Town, no. 2 [sung text checked 1 time]
- by Charles Wilfred Orr (1893 - 1976), "Farewell to barn and stack and tree", 1927, published 1934 [ baritone and piano ], from Seven Songs from "A Shropshire Lad", no. 4 [sung text not yet checked]
- by John Ramsden Williamson (1929 - 2015), "Farewell to barn and stack and tree" [ baritone and piano ] [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: 24
Word count: 150