This lunar beauty Has no history Is complete and early, If beauty later Bear any feature It had a lover And is another. This like a dream Keeps other time And daytime is The loss of this, For time is inches And the heart's changes Where ghost has haunted Lost and wanted. But this was never A ghost's endeavor Nor finished this, Was ghost at ease, And till it pass Love shall not near The sweetness here Nor sorrow take His endless look.
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Text Authorship:
- by W. H. (Wystan Hugh) Auden (1907 - 1973), no title, appears in Poems, first published 1930 [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 John Reginald Lang-Hyde (1899 - 1990), as Lewis Hyde, "Like a dream", 1959 [ voice and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
- by John Francis Rimmer (b. 1939), "This lunar beauty", 1964 [ voice and piano ], from Three songs by W. H. Auden [sung text not yet checked]
Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]
This text was added to the website: 2009-01-14
Line count: 24
Word count: 83