Six Songs , opus 33

by Ian Venables (b. 1955)

1. The Way Through

Language: English 
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2. It Rains  [sung text not yet checked]

Language: English 
It rains, and nothing stirs within the fence
Anywhere through the orchard's untrodden, dense
Forest of parsley. The great diamonds
Of rain on the grassblades there is none to break,
Or the fallen petals further down to shake.

And I am nearly as happy as possible
To search the wilderness in vain though well,
To think of two walking, kissing there,
Drenched, yet forgetting the kisses of the rain:
Sad, too, to think that never, never again,

Unless alone, so happy shall I walk
In the rain. When I turn away, on its fine stalk
Twilight has fined to naught, the parsley flower
Figures, suspended still and ghostly white,
The past hovering as it revisits the light.

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3. Vitae Summa Brevis  [sung text not yet checked]

Language: English 
They are not long, the weeping and the laughter,
  Love and desire and hate:
I think they have no portion in us after
  We pass the gate.

They are not long, the days of wine and roses:
  Out of a misty dream
Our path emerges for a while, then closes
  Within a dream.

Text Authorship:

  • by Ernest Christopher Dowson (1867 - 1900), "Vitae summa brevis spem nos vetat incohare longam", appears in Verses, London, Leonard Smithers, first published 1896

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Confirmed with Ernest Dowson, Verses, London: Leonard Smithers, 1896, front matter.


4. The November Piano

Language: English 
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5. Break, break, break
 (Sung text)

Language: English 
Break, break, break,
  On thy cold grey stones, O Sea! 
And I would that my tongue could utter 
  The thoughts that arise in me. 

O well for the fisherman's boy, 
  That he shouts with his sister at play! 
O well for the sailor lad, 
  That he sings in his boat on the bay! 

And the stately ships go on 
  To their haven under the hill; 
But O for the touch of a vanish'd hand, 
  And the sound of a voice that is still! 

Break, break, break,
  At the foot of thy crags, O Sea! 
But the tender grace of a day that is dead 
  Will never come back to me.

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Poet's note: "Made in a Lincolnshire lane at five o'clock in the morning, between blossoming hedges." Written in memory of Tennyson's friend Arthur Hallam (d. 1833).

6. The Hippo
 (Sung text)

Language: English 
A head or tail which does he lack?
 [ ... ]

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