LiederNet logo

CONTENTS

×
  • Home | Introduction
  • Composers (20,119)
  • Text Authors (19,527)
  • Go to a Random Text
  • What’s New
  • A Small Tour
  • FAQ & Links
  • Donors
  • DONATE

UTILITIES

  • Search Everything
  • Search by Surname
  • Search by Title or First Line
  • Search by Year
  • Search by Collection

CREDITS

  • Emily Ezust
  • Contributors (1,114)
  • Contact Information
  • Bibliography

  • Copyright Statement
  • Privacy Policy

Follow us on Facebook

by James Fordyce (1720 - 1796)

The black eagle
Language: English 
Hark! yonder eagle lonely wails; 
His faithful bosom grief assails: 
Last night I heard him in my dream, 
When death and woe were all the theme. 
Like that poor bird I make my moan,
I grieve for dearest Delia gone; 
With him to gloomy rocks I fly, 
He mourns for love, and so do I.

'Twas mighty love that tam'd his breast, 
'Tis tender grief that breaks his rest; 
He droops his wings, he hangs his head, 
Since she he fondly lov'd was dead; 
With Delia's breath my joy expir'd,
'Twas Delia's smiles my fancy fir'd; 
Like that poor bird, I pine, and prove 
Naught can supply the place of love.

Text Authorship:

  • by James Fordyce (1720 - 1796), note: sometimes misattributed to the poet's brother David Fordyce [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 (Franz) Joseph Haydn (1732 - 1809), "The black eagle", JHW. XXXII/1 no. 66, Hob. XXXIa no. 66. [
     text verified 1 time
    ]

Researcher for this page: Ferdinando Albeggiani

This text was added to the website: 2012-08-14
Line count: 16
Word count: 111

Gentle Reminder

This website began in 1995 as a personal project by Emily Ezust, who has been working on it full-time without a salary since 2008. Our research has never had any government or institutional funding, so if you found the information here useful, please consider making a donation. Your help is greatly appreciated!
–Emily Ezust, Founder

Donate

We use cookies for internal analytics and to earn much-needed advertising revenue. (Did you know you can help support us by turning off ad-blockers?) To learn more, see our Privacy Policy. To learn how to opt out of cookies, please visit this site.

I acknowledge the use of cookies

Contact
Copyright
Privacy

Copyright © 2025 The LiederNet Archive

Site redesign by Shawn Thuris