Five songs , opus 120

by Fritz Bennicke Hart (1874 - 1949)

1. The old woman [sung text not yet checked]

Language: English

As a white candle
In a holy place,
So is the beauty
Of an agéd face.

As the spent radiance
Of the winter sun,
So is a woman
With her travail done.

Her brood gone from her,
And her thoughts as still
As the waters
Under a ruined mill.

Text Authorship:

by Joseph Campbell (1881 - 1944), "The old woman", appears in Irishry, Dublin, Maunsel & Company, first published 1913

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Confirmed with Joseph Campbell, Irishry, Dublin, Maunsel & Company, 1913, page 79.

2. When I set out for Lyonnesse [sung text not yet checked]

Language: English

 When I set out for Lyonnesse,
   A hundred miles away,
   The rime was on the spray,
 And starlight lit my lonesomeness
 When I set out for Lyonnesse
   A hundred miles away.

 What would bechance at Lyonnesse
   While I should sojourn there
   No prophet durst declare,
 Nor did the wisest wizard guess
 What would bechance at Lyonnesse
   While I should sojourn there.

 When I came back from Lyonnesse
   With magic in my eyes,
   [None managed to surmise
 What meant my godlike gloriousness]¹,
 When I came back from Lyonnesse
   With magic in my eyes!

Text Authorship:

by Thomas Hardy (1840 - 1928), "When I set out for Lyonnesse", appears in Satires of Circumstance, Lyrics and Reveries with Miscellaneous Pieces, first published 1914

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¹ Finzi: "All marked with mute surmise / My radiance rare and fathomless" ; Gibbs: "All marked with mute surmise / What meant my godlike gloriousness"

3. Spring goeth all in white [sung text not yet checked]

Language: English

Spring goeth all in white,
Crowned with milk-white may:
In fleecy flocks of light
O'er heaven the white clouds stray:

White butterflies in the air;
White daisies prank the ground:
The cherry and hoary pear
Scatter their snow around.

Text Authorship:

by Robert Seymour Bridges (1844 - 1930), no title, appears in The Shorter Poems of Robert Bridges, first published 1890

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4. Lean out of the window [sung text not yet checked]

Language: English

Lean out of the window,
  Goldenhair,
I heard you singing
  A merry air.

My book is closed;
  I read no more,
Watching the fire dance
  On the floor.

I have left my book,
  I have left my room,
For I heard you singing
  Through the gloom,

Singing and singing
  A merry air.
Lean out of the window,
  Goldenhair.

Text Authorship:

by James Joyce (1882 - 1941), appears in Chamber Music, no. 5, first published 1907

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

5. In a Field [sung text not yet checked]

Language: English

The sun and moon I see
   Beside me in the grass:
The moon, a daisy’s face
   As pure and fine as glass;
The sun, a dandelion
   As golden as a pound —
Oh what a firmament
   Is this which I have found!

White stars the elm tree shakes
   To twinkle where they lie
As bright upon the earth
   As any in the sky.
This field is heaven’s glass
   And gazing in I see
What disembodied joys
   The future holds for me.

Text Authorship:

by Fredegond Cecily Shove (1899 - 1949), "In a Field"

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