Upon the wintry trees A few dead leaves are hung; They rattle in the breeze The mournful boughs among. As in December old The earth is dark and drear; No newer buds unfold -- Yet Spring, the Spring is here. And in the grass there grows A fragrant violet; No other flower knows, No one hath told them yet. Nor yet the bees forsake The threshold of their home; No voice hath bid them wake, Hath cried "The Spring is come!" The sky is dark and low, Unswept by swallow wings. But soft the South doth blow, Sudden the blackbird sings.
Six Songs , opus 6
by Frederick Septimus Kelly (1881 - 1916)
1. March
2. The Sages' Dance
On my flute with tips of jade Sweet the music that I played, Sang my song to men, but they From my singing turned away. So I held my flute on high, To the Sages in the Sky Played and sang, and they entranced On the floor of Heaven danced. Men now listened to my song, Bade me sing it all day long, Praised my music, as I played On my flute with tips of jade.
Text Authorship:
- by Logan Pearsall Smith (1865 - 1946)
Based on:
- a text in Chinese (中文) by Li-Tai-Po (701 - 762) [text unavailable]
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3. When the lamp is shattered
When the lamp is shattered The light in the dust lies dead -- When the cloud is scattered The rainbow's glory is shed. When the lute is broken, Sweet tones are remembered not; When the lips have spoken, Loved accents are soon forgot. As music and splendour Survive not the lamp and the lute, The heart's echoes render No song when the spirit is mute: -- No song but sad dirges, Like the wind through a ruined cell, Or the mournful surges That ring the dead seaman's knell. When hearts have once mingled Love first leaves the well-built nest; The weak one is singled To endure what it once possessed. O Love! who bewailest The frailty of all things here, Why choose you the frailest For your cradle, your home, and your bier? Its passions will rock thee As the storms rock the ravens on high; Bright reason will mock thee, Like the sun from a wintry sky. From thy nest every rafter Will rot, and thine eagle home Leave thee naked to laughter, When leaves fall and cold winds come.
Text Authorship:
- by Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792 - 1822), "Lines: When the lamp is shattered", first published 1824
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Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):
- CZE Czech (Čeština) (Jaroslav Vrchlický) , "Verše ", Prague, J. Otto, first published 1901
4. Music, when soft voices die
Music, when soft voices die, Vibrates in the memory; Odours, when sweet violets sicken, Live within the sense they quicken. Rose leaves, when the rose is dead, Are heaped for the belovèd's bed; And so thy thoughts, when thou art gone, Love itself shall slumber on.
Text Authorship:
- by Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792 - 1822), "To ----", appears in Posthumous Poems, first published 1824
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Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):
- CZE Czech (Čeština) (Jaroslav Vrchlický) , "Sloky", Prague, J. Otto, first published 1901
- FRE French (Français) (Guy Laffaille) , copyright © 2010, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
- GER German (Deutsch) (Martin Stock) , "Musik, wenn leise Stimmen ersterben ...", copyright © 2002, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
- GER German (Deutsch) [singable] (Bertram Kottmann) , copyright © 2018, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
5. The Cherry Tree
Up in the blossoming Cherry Tree. A garden in the air I see, With flowers gay; and shining through The April heaven, soft and blue. And clouds, than drifted snow more bright, Float ever o'er that garden white.
6. The Daffodils
I wandered lonely as a cloud That floats on high o'er vales and hills, When all at once I saw a crowd, A host, of golden daffodils; Beside the lake, beneath the trees, Fluttering and dancing in the breeze. Continuous as the stars that shine And twinkle on the milky way, They stretched in never-ending line Along the margin of a bay: Ten thousand saw I at a glance, Tossing their heads in sprightly dance. The waves beside them danced; but they Out-did the sparkling waves in glee: A poet could not but be gay, In such a jocund company: I gazed -- and gazed -- but little thought What wealth the show to me had brought: For oft, when on my couch I lie In vacant or in pensive mood, They flash upon that inward eye Which is the bliss of solitude; And then my heart with pleasure fills, And dances with the daffodils.
Text Authorship:
- by William Wordsworth (1770 - 1850)
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Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):
- CHI Chinese (中文) [singable] (Dr Huaixing Wang) , copyright © 2024, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
- CZE Czech (Čeština) (Jaroslav Vrchlický) , "Narcisky"
- GER German (Deutsch) [singable] (Bertram Kottmann) , "Die Narzissen", copyright © 2007, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
- GER German (Deutsch) [singable] (Walter A. Aue) , "Ich wandert' einsam wie die Wolk'", copyright © 2008, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
- HUN Hungarian (Magyar) (Tamás Rédey) , "Nárciszok", copyright © 2015, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
- POL Polish (Polski) (Jan Kasprowicz) , "Jak obłok ponad pasmem gór", Warsaw, first published 1907