I have been here before,
But when or how I cannot tell:
I know the grass beyond the door,
The sweet keen smell,
The sighing sound, the lights around the shore.
You have been mine before, --
How long ago I may not know:
But just when at that swallow's soar
Your neck turned so,
Some veil did fall, -- I knew it all of yore.
Has this been thus before?
And shall not thus time's eddying flight
Still with our lives our love restore
In death's despite,
And day and night yield one delight once more?
Two Songs with Words by Dante Gabriel Rossetti , opus 33
by Clara Kathleen Rogers (1844 - 1931)
1. Sudden light [sung text not yet checked]
Language: English
Text Authorship:
- by Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1828 - 1882), "Sudden light", written 1853/4, from Poems. A New Edition, first published 1881
See other settings of this text.
Note: first published in 1863, revised in 1870 and 1881. In the 1870 version of the poem (from Poems: an Offering to Lancashire), the final stanza was as follows:
Then, now, -- perchance again! . . . .
O round mine eyes your tresses shake!
Shall we not lie as we have lain
Thus for Love's sake,
And sleep, and wake, yet never break the chain?
2. Adieu [sung text not yet checked]
Language: English
Waving whispering trees, What do you say to the breeze And what says the breeze to you? 'Mid passing souls ill at ease, Moving murmuring trees, Would ye ever wave an Adieu? Tossing turbulent seas, Winds that wrestle with these, Echo heard in the shell, -- 'Mid fleeting life ill at ease, Restless ravening seas, -- Would the echo sigh Farewell? Surging sumptuous skies, For ever a new surprise, Clouds eternally new, -- Is every flake that flies, Widening wandering skies, For a sign-Farewell, Adieu? Sinking suffering heart That know'st how weary thou art, -- Soul so fain for a flight, -- Aye, spread your wings to depart, Sad soul and sorrowing heart, -- Adieu, Farewell, Good-night.