Tone-Images , opus 3

by Charles Tomlinson Griffes (1884 - 1920)

1. La Fuite de la Lune
 (Sung text)

Language: English 
To outer senses there is peace,
A dreamy peace on either hand,
Deep silence in the shadowy land,
Deep silence where the shadows cease.

Save for a cry that echoes shrill
From some lone bird disconsolate;
A corncrake calling to its mate;
The answer from the misty hill.

And suddenly the moon withdraws
Her sickle from the light'ning skies,
And to her sombre cavern flies,
Wrapped in a veil of yellow gauze.

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2. Symphony in yellow
 (Sung text)

Language: English 
An omnibus across the bridge
Crawls like a yellow butterfly,
And, here and there, a passer-by
Shows like a restless little midge.

Big barges full of yellow hay,
Are moved against the shadowy wharf,
And like a yellow silken scarf,
The thick fog hangs along the quay.

The yellow leaves begin to fade,
And flutter from the temple elms,
And at my feet the pale green Thames
Lies like a rod of rippled jade.

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First published in Centennial Magazine, 1889

3. We'll to the woods and gather May
 (Sung text)

Language: English 
We'll to the woods, and gather May
Fresh from the footprints of the rain;
We'll to the woods at ev'ry vein
To drink the spirit of the day.

The winds of spring are out at play,
The needs of spring in heart and brain.
We'll to the woods, and gather May
Fresh from the footprints of the rain;

The world's too near her end, you say?
Hark to the blackbird's mad refrain!
It waits for her, the vast Inane?
Then, girls, to help her on her way,
We'll to the woods and gather May.

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