by Henry Kingsley (1830 - 1876)
Magdalen at Michael’s gate
Language: English
Magdalen at Michael’s gate [Tirlèd]1 at the pin; On Joseph’s thorn sang the blackbird, ‘Let her in! Let her in!’ ‘Hast thou seen the wounds?’ said Michael, ‘[Know’st]2 thou thy sin?’ ‘It is [evening]3, evening,’ sang the blackbird, ‘Let her in! Let her in!’ ‘Yes, I have seen the wounds, And I know my sin.’ ‘She knows it well, well, well,’ [sung]4 the blackbird, ‘Let her in! Let her in!’ ‘Thou [bringest]5 no offerings,’ said Michael. ‘Nought save sin.’ [And the blackbird sang]6, ‘She is sorry, sorry, sorry, ‘Let her in! Let her in!’ When he had sung himself to sleep, And night did begin, One came and open’d Michael’s gate, And Magdalen went in.
About the headline (FAQ)
View original text (without footnotes)Confirmed with The Oxford Book of Victorian Verse, ed. by Arthur Quiller-Couch, Oxford, New York: The Clarendon Press, 1922, via Bartleby.com, 2013.
1 Brook: "Tirl'd" ; Maude: "Twirled"2 Brook, Lehmann, Maude: "Knowest"
3 Brook, Lehmann: "evening"
4 Brook, Lehmann, Maude: "sang"
5 Brook, Lehmann, Maude: "bring'st"
6 Maude: "She is sorry, sang the blackbird,"
Authorship:
- by Henry Kingsley (1830 - 1876), "Magdalen" [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 Harry Brook (1893 - ?), "At Michael's Gate", published 1949, copyright © 1949 [ voice and piano ] [sung text checked 1 time]
- by Caroline Anna Mary Maude, Vicountess Hawarden (d. 1930), "Magdalen" [sung text checked 1 time]
- by Liza Lehmann (1862 - 1918), "Magdalen at Michael's gate", 1913 [sung text checked 1 time]
Research team for this page: Emily Ezust [Administrator] , Garrett Medlock [Guest Editor]
This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 20
Word count: 115