by Edwin Arlington Robinson (1869 - 1935)
The Torrent
Language: English
I found a torrent falling in a glen Where the sun's light shone silvered and leaf-split; The boom, the foam, and the mad flash of it All made a magic symphony; but when I thought upon the coming of hard men To cut those patriarchal trees away, And turn to gold the silver of that spray, I shuddered. Yet a gladness now and then Did wake me to myself till I was glad In earnest, and was welcoming the time For screaming saws to sound above the chime Of idle waters, and for me to know The jealous visionings that I had had Were steps to the great place where trees and torrents go.
Text Authorship:
- by Edwin Arlington Robinson (1869 - 1935), appears in The Children of the Night, first published 1897 [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 David Evan Thomas (b. 1958), "The Torrent", 2020 [ medium voice and piano ], from Children of the Night, no. 2 [sung text checked 1 time]
Researcher for this page: David Evan Thomas
This text was added to the website: 2024-07-12
Line count: 14
Word count: 114