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by Charles Causley, CBE (1917 - 2003)

Green Man in the Garden
Language: English 
Green man in the garden
Staring from the tree,
Why do you look so long and hard
Through the pane at me?

Your eyes are dark as holly
Of sycamore your thorns,
Your bones are made of elder branch,
Your teeth are made of thorns.

Your hat is made of ivy-leaf
Of bark your dancing shoes,
And evergreen and green and green
Your jacket and shirt and trews.

Leave your house and leave your land
And throw away the key,
And never look behind, he creaked
And come and live with me.

I bolted up the window,
I bolted up the door,
I drew the blind that I should find
The green man never more.

But when I softly turned the stair
As I went up to bed,
I saw the green man standing there.
Sleep well, my friend, he said.

Text Authorship:

  • by Charles Causley, CBE (1917 - 2003) [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 Carol Barnett , "Green Man in the Garden", 2015 [ soprano ], from Green Magic Songs, no. 3
        Score: Carol Barnett [external link]
        Publisher: Carol Barnett [external link]  [sung text not yet checked]

Researcher for this page: Joost van der Linden [Guest Editor]

This text was added to the website: 2026-02-10
Line count: 24
Word count: 141

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