Seven Sets of Seven Songs, Set IV , opus 31

by Fritz Bennicke Hart (1874 - 1949)

1. Affinity  [sung text not yet checked]

Language: English 
You and I have found the secret way,	
None can bar our love or say us nay:	
All the world may stare and never know	
You and I are twined together so.	
 
You and I for all his vaunted width
Know the giant Space is but a myth;	
Over miles and miles of pure deceit	
You and I have found our lips can meet.	
 
You and I have laughed the leagues apart	
In the soft delight of heart to heart.
If there's a gulf to meet or limit set,	
You and I have never found it yet.	
 
You and I have trod the backward way	
To the happy heart of yesterday,	
To the love we felt in ages past.
You and I have found it still to last.	
 
You and I have found the joy had birth	
In the angel childhood of the earth,	
Hid within the heart of man and maid.	
You and I of Time are not afraid.
 
You and I can mock his fabled wing,	
For a kiss is an immortal thing.	
And the throb wherein those old lips met	
Is a living music in us yet.

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2. A dream  [sung text not yet checked]

Language: English 
I would I could weave in
  The colour, the wonder,
The song I conceive in
  My heart while I ponder,

And show how it came like
  The magi of old
Whose chant was a flame like
  The dawn's voice of gold;
 
Whose dreams followed near them
  A murmur of birds,
And ear still could hear them
  Unchanted in words.
 
In words I can only
  Reveal thee my heart,
Oh, Light of the Lonely,
  The shining impart.

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Note: these are the first stanzas of "The fountain of shadowy beauty"

3. The Veils of Maya  [sung text not yet checked]

Language: English 
Mother, with whom our lives should be,
Not hatred keeps our lives apart:
Charmed by some lesser glow in thee,
Our hearts beat not within thy heart.
 
Beauty, the face, the touch, the eyes,
Prophets of thee, allure our sight
From that unfathomed deep where lies
Thine ancient loveliness and light.
 
Self-found at last, the joy that springs
Being thyself, shall once again
Start thee upon the whirling rings
And through the pilgrimage of pain.

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4. The awakening  [sung text not yet checked]

Language: English 
Well it is gone now,
  The dream that I chanted:
On this side the dawn now
  I sit fate-implanted.
 
But though of my dreaming
  The dawn has bereft me,
It all was not seeming
  For something has left me.
 
I feel in some other
  World far from this cold light
The Dream Bird, my brother,
  Is rayed with the gold light.
 
I too in the Father
  Would hide me, and so,
Bright Bird, to foregather
  With thee now I go.

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Note: these are the last stanzas of "The fountain of shadowy beauty"

5. Heroic love  [sung text not yet checked]

Language: English 
Ere I lose myself in the vastness and drowse myself with the peace,
While I gaze on the light and the beauty afar from the dim homes of men,
May I still feel the heart-pang and pity, love-ties that I would not release;
May the voices of sorrow appealing call me back to their succour again.
 
Ere I storm with the tempest of power the thrones and dominions of old,
Ere the ancient enchantment allure me to roam through the star-misty skies,
I would go forth as one who has reaped well what harvest the earth may unfold;
May my heart be o'erbrimmed with compassion; on my brow be the crown of the wise.
 
I would go as the dove from the ark sent forth with wishes and prayers
To return with the paradise blossoms that bloom in the Eden of light:
When the deep star-chant of the seraphs I hear in the mystical airs,
May I capture one tone of their joy for the sad ones discrowned in the night.
 
Not alone, not alone would I go to my rest in the heart of the love:
Were I tranced in the innermost beauty, the flame of its tenderest breath,
I would still hear the cry of the fallen recalling me back from above,
To go down to the side of the people who weep in the shadow of death.

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6. Destiny  [sung text not yet checked]

Language: English 
Like winds or waters were her ways:
The flowing tides, the airy streams,
Are troubled not by any dreams;
They know the circle of their days.
 
Like winds or waters were her ways:
They heed not immemorial cries;
They move to their high destinies
Beyond the little voice that prays.
 
She passed into her secret goal,
And left behind a soul that trod
In darkness, knowing not of God,
But craving for its sister soul.

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7. Illusion  [sung text not yet checked]

Language: English 
What is the love of shadowy lips
That know not what they seek or press,
From whom the lure for ever slips
And fails their phantom tenderness?
 
The mystery and light of eyes
That near to mine grow dim and cold;
They move afar in ancient skies
Mid flame and mystic darkness rolled.
 
O beauty, as thy heart o'erflows
In tender yielding unto me,
A vast desire awakes and grows
Unto forgetfulness of thee.

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