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The Nantucket Songs

Song Cycle by Ned Rorem (1923 - 2022)

1. Song
 (Sung text)

Language: English 
From whence cometh song?
 [ ... ]

Text Authorship:

  • by Theodore Roethke (1908 - 1963), "Song (From whence cometh song?)", appears in The Far Field, first published 1964, copyright ©

See other settings of this text.

This text may be copyright, so we will not display it until we obtain permission to do so or discover it is public-domain.

2. The Dance
 (Sung text)

Language: English 
In Brueghel's great picture, The Kermess
 [ ... ]

Text Authorship:

  • by William Carlos Williams (1883 - 1963), "The Dance", appears in The Wedge, first published 1944, copyright ©

See other settings of this text.

This text may be copyright, so we will not display it until we obtain permission to do so or discover it is public-domain.

3. Nantucket
 (Sung text)

Language: English 
Flowers through the window
 [ ... ]

Text Authorship:

  • by William Carlos Williams (1883 - 1963), "Nantucket", appears in Collected Poems 1921-1931, first published 1934, copyright ©

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This text may be copyright, so we will not display it until we obtain permission to do so or discover it is public-domain.

4. Song
 (Sung text)

Language: English 
Go, lovely Rose! --
Tell her, that wastes her time and me,
  That now she knows,
When I resemble her to thee,
How sweet and fair she seems to be.

Tell her that's young,
  And shuns to have her graces spied
That hadst thou sprung
  In deserts, where no men abide,
Thou must have uncommended died.

Small is the worth
  Of beauty from the light retir'd;
Bid her come forth,
  Suffer herself to be desir'd,
And not blush so to be admir'd.

Then die! -- that she
  The common fate of all things rare
May read in thee:
  How small a part of time they share
That are so wondrous sweet and fair!

Yet though thou fade,
From thy dead leaves let fragrance rise;
And teach the maid
That goodness time's rude hand defies;
That virtue lives when beauty dies.

Text Authorship:

  • by Edmund Waller (1608 - 1687)
  • by Henry Kirke White (1785 - 1806)

See other settings of this text.

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

  • SPA Spanish (Español) (José Miguel Llata) , copyright © 2020, (re)printed on this website with kind permission

See also Ezra Pound's Envoi.

Researcher for this page: Ted Perry

5. Up‑hill
 (Sung text)

Language: English 
Does the road wind up-hill all the way?
  Yes, to the very end.
Will the day's journey take the whole long day?
  From morn to night, my friend.

But is there for the night a resting place?
  A roof for when the slow dark hours begin.
May not the darkness hide it from my face?
  You cannot miss that inn.

Shall I meet other wayfarers at night?
  Those who have gone before.
Then must I knock, or call when just in sight?
  They will not keep you standing at that door.

Shall I find comfort, travel-sore and weak?
  Of labour you shall find the sum.
Will there be beds for me and all who seek?
  Yes, beds for all who come.

Text Authorship:

  • by Christina Georgina Rossetti (1830 - 1894), "Up-Hill"

See other settings of this text.

First published in Macmillan's Magazine, February 1861

Research team for this page: Emily Ezust [Administrator] , Poom Andrew Pipatjarasgit [Guest Editor]

6. Mother, I cannot mind my wheel
 (Sung text)

Language: English 
Mother, I cannot mind my wheel;
My fingers ache, my lips are dry:
O, if you feel the pain I feel!
But O, who ever felt as I?

No longer could I doubt him true -
All other men may use deceit;
He always said my eyes were blue,
And often swore my lips were sweet.

Text Authorship:

  • by Walter Savage Landor (1775 - 1864), no title, appears in Simonidea, first published 1860 [an adaptation]

Based on:

  • a text in Aeolic Greek by Sappho (flourished c610-c580 BCE)
    • Go to the text page.

See other settings of this text.

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

7. Fear of death
 (Sung text)

Language: English 
What is it now with me
 [ ... ]

Text Authorship:

  • by John Ashbery (1927 - 2017), "Fear of death", appears in Self-Portrait in a Convex Mirror, first published 1975, copyright ©

Go to the general single-text view

This text may be copyright, so we will not display it until we obtain permission to do so or discover it is public-domain.

8. Thoughts of a young girl
 (Sung text)

Language: English 
It is such a beautiful day I had to write you a letter
 [ ... ]

Text Authorship:

  • by John Ashbery (1927 - 2017), "Thoughts of a young girl", appears in The Tennis Court Oath, first published 1962, copyright ©

Go to the general single-text view

This text may be copyright, so we will not display it until we obtain permission to do so or discover it is public-domain.

9. Ferry me across the water
 (Sung text)

Language: English 
"Ferry me across the water,
Do, boatman, do."
"If you've a penny in your purse
I'll ferry you."

"I have a penny in my purse,
And my eyes are blue;
So ferry me across the water,
Do, boatman, do!"

"Step into my ferry-boat,
Be they black or blue,
And for the penny in your purse
I'll ferry you."

Text Authorship:

  • by Christina Georgina Rossetti (1830 - 1894), no title, appears in Sing-song: a nursery rhyme book, first published 1872

See other settings of this text.

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

  • GER German (Deutsch) (Bertram Kottmann) , copyright © 2013, (re)printed on this website with kind permission

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

10. The dancer
 (Sung text)

Language: English 
Behold the brand of beauty tossed!
See how the motion does dilate the flame!
Delighted love his spoils does boast,
And triumph in this game.
Fire, to no place confined,
Is both our wonder and our fear;
Moving the mind,
As lightning hurled through the air.

High heaven the glory does increase
Of all her shining lamps, this artful way;
The sun, in figures such as these,
Joys with the moon to play;
To the sweet strains they advance,
Which do result from their own spheres,
As this nymph's dance
Moves with the numbers which she hears.

Text Authorship:

  • by Edmund Waller (1608 - 1687)

Go to the general single-text view

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]
Total word count: 925
Gentle Reminder

This website began in 1995 as a personal project by Emily Ezust, who has been working on it full-time without a salary since 2008. Our research has never had any government or institutional funding, so if you found the information here useful, please consider making a donation. Your help is greatly appreciated!
–Emily Ezust, Founder

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