Thy fishes breathe but where thy waters roll; Thy birds fly but within thy airy sea; My soul breathes only in thy infinite soul; I breathe, I think, I love, I live, but thee. Oh, breathe, oh, [sink]1 -- O Love, live into me; [Unworthy is my life till all divine, Till thou see in me only what is thine.]2
Leafs from the Diary of an Old Soul
Song Cycle by M. Ryan Taylor (b. 1972)
1. Thy fishes breathe  [sung text checked 1 time]
Authorship:
- by George MacDonald (1824 - 1905), no title, appears in A Book of Strife in the Form of The Diary of an Old Soul, Entry for January Fifth, first published 1880
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View original text (without footnotes)1 Taylor: "think"
2 omitted by Taylor.
Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]
2. Come to me, Lord [sung text not yet checked]
Note: this is a multi-text setting
Come to me, Lord: I will not speculate how, Nor think at which door I would have thee appear, Nor put off calling till my floors be swept, But cry, "Come, Lord, come any way, come now." [Doors, windows, I throw wide; my head I bow, And sit like some one who so long has slept That he knows nothing till his life draw near.]1
Authorship:
- by George MacDonald (1824 - 1905), no title, appears in A Book of Strife in the Form of The Diary of an Old Soul, Entry for January Thirtieth, first published 1880
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View original text (without footnotes)1 omitted by Taylor
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Thou wilt interpret life to me, and men, art, nature, [yea]1 my own soul's mysteries; bringing truth out, clear joyous to my ken, Fair as the morn trampling the dull night. Then the lone hillside shall hear exultant cries; The joyous see me joy, the weeping weep; The watching smile, as Death breathes on me his cold sleep.
Authorship:
- by George MacDonald (1824 - 1905), no title, appears in A Book of Strife in the Form of The Diary of an Old Soul, Entry for February 8, first published 1880
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View original text (without footnotes)1 omitted by Taylor.
Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]
3. Gloriously wasteful [sung text checked 1 time]
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Gloriously wasteful, O my Lord, art thou! Sunset faints after sunset into the night, Splendorously dying from thy window-sill --forever. [Sad our poverty doth bow Before the riches of thy making might: Sweep from thy space thy systems at thy will -- In thee the sun sets every sunset still.]1
Authorship:
- by George MacDonald (1824 - 1905), no title, appears in A Book of Strife in the Form of The Diary of an Old Soul, Entry for March Second, first published 1880
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View original text (without footnotes)1 omitted by Taylor.
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[And]1 in the perfect time, [O perfect God,]1 When we are in our [home, our]1 natal home, [When joy shall carry every sacred load, And from its life and peace no heart shall roam,]1 What if thou make us able to make like thee -- To light with moons, to clothe with greenery, To hang gold sunsets o'er a rose and purple sea!
Authorship:
- by George MacDonald (1824 - 1905), no title, appears in A Book of Strife in the Form of The Diary of an Old Soul, Entry for March 3, first published 1880
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View original text (without footnotes)1 omitted by Taylor.
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Then [to his neighbour one]1 may call out, "Come! Brother, come hither -- I would show you a thing;" And lo, a vision of his imagining, [Informed of thought which else had rested dumb, Before the neighbour's truth-delighted eyes, In the great æther of existence rise,]2 And [two hearts each]3 to each the closer cling!
Authorship:
- by George MacDonald (1824 - 1905), no title, appears in A Book of Strife in the Form of The Diary of an Old Soul, Entry for March 4, first published 1880
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View original text (without footnotes)1 Taylor: "one to his neighbor"
2 omitted by Taylor.
3 Taylor: "each soul"
Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]
4. Childness fresh [sung text checked 1 time]
Note: this is a multi-text setting
[Thou, then as now, no less wilt be my life, And I shall know it better than before, Praying and trusting, hoping, claiming more. From effort vain, sick foil, and bootless strife,]1 I shall, with childness fresh, look up to thee; Thou, seeing thy child with age encumbered sore, Wilt round him bend thine arm more carefully.
Authorship:
- by George MacDonald (1824 - 1905), no title, appears in A Book of Strife in the Form of The Diary of an Old Soul, Entry for October Twentieth, first published 1880
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View original text (without footnotes)1 omitted by Taylor.
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And when grim Death doth take me by the throat, Thou wilt have pity on thy handiwork; [Thou wilt not let him on my suffering gloat,]1 [But]2 draw my soul out -- gladder than [man or boy, When]1 thy saved creatures from the narrow ark [Rushed out, and]3 leaped and laughed and cried for joy, And the great rainbow strode across the dark.
Authorship:
- by George MacDonald (1824 - 1905), no title, appears in A Book of Strife in the Form of The Diary of an Old Soul, Entry for October 21, first published 1880
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View original text (without footnotes)1 omitted by Taylor.
2 Taylor: "and"
3 Taylor: "who rushing out"
Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]
5. Part for Praise  [sung text checked 1 time]
Give me a world, to part for praise and sunder. The brooks be bells; the winds, in caverns dumb, [Wake]1 fife and flute and flageolet and voice; The fire-shook earth itself be the great drum; [And let the air the region's bass out thunder;]2 [The firs be violins; the reeds hautboys;]3 Rivers, seas, icebergs fill the great score up and under!
Authorship:
- by George MacDonald (1824 - 1905), no title, appears in A Book of Strife in the Form of The Diary of an Old Soul, Entry for December Twelfth, first published 1880
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View original text (without footnotes)1 Taylor: "awake"
2 Taylor: moved to the last line.
3 omitted by Taylor
Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]