Two Songs , opus 12

by Cecil Armstrong Gibbs (1889 - 1960)

1. Nod [sung text not yet checked]

Language: English

Softly along the road of evening,	 
    In a twilight dim [with]¹ rose,	 
Wrinkled with age, and drenched with dew	 
    Old Nod, the shepherd, goes.	 
  
His drowsy flock streams on before him,	
    Their fleeces charged with gold,	 
To where the sun's last beam leans low	 
    On Nod the shepherd's fold.	 
  
The hedge is quick and green with briar,	 
    From their sand the conies creep;
And all the birds that fly in heaven	 
    Flock singing home to sleep.	 
  
His lambs outnumber a noon's roses,	 
    Yet, when night's shadows fall,	 
His blind old sheep-dog, Slumber-soon,
    Misses not one of all.	 
  
His are the quiet steeps of dreamland,	 
    The waters of no-more-pain;	 
His ram's bell rings 'neath an arch of stars,	 
    "Rest, rest, and rest again."

Text Authorship:

by Walter De la Mare (1873 - 1956), "Nod", appears in The Listeners and Other Poems, first published 1912

See other settings of this text.

Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):

CAT Catalan (Català) (Salvador Pila) , copyright © 2024, (re)printed on this website with kind permission

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View original text (without footnotes)
¹ Harmati: "and" (may be an error in New Songs and New Voices score)

2. The scarecrow [sung text not yet checked]

Language: English

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.

Text Authorship:

by Walter De la Mare (1873 - 1956), "The scarecrow", appears in The Listeners and Other Poems, first published 1912

See other settings of this text.