All winter through I bow my head Beneath the driving rain; The North Wind powders me with snow And blows me back again; At midnight 'neath a maze of stars I flame with glittering rime, And stand, above the stubble, stiff As mail at morning-prime. But when that child, called Spring, and all His host of children, come, Scattering their buds and dew upon These acres of my home, Some rapture in my rags awakes; I lift void eyes and scan The skies for crows, those ravening foes, Of my strange master, Man. I watch him striding lank behind His clashing team, and know Soon will the wheat swish body high Where once lay sterile snow; Soon shall I gaze across a sea Of sun-begotten grain, Which my unflinching watch hath sealed For harvest once again.
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Text Authorship:
- by Walter De la Mare (1873 - 1956), "The scarecrow", appears in The Listeners and Other Poems, first published 1912 [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 Cecil Armstrong Gibbs (1889 - 1960), "The scarecrow", op. 12 (Two Songs) no. 2, published 1931 [ voice and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
- by David Stanley Smith (1877 - 1949), "The scarecrow", 1919 [ voice and piano ], from Portraits [sung text not yet checked]
Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]
This text was added to the website: 2008-01-11
Line count: 24
Word count: 136