I sat one sprinkling day upon the lea, Where tall-stemmed ferns spread out luxuriantly, And nothing but those tall ferns sheltered me. The rain gained strength, and damped each lopping frond, Ran down their stalks beside me and beyond, And shaped slow-creeping rivulets as I conned, With pride, my spray-roofed house. And though anon Some drops pierced its green rafters, I sat on, Making pretence I was not rained upon. The sun then burst, and brought forth a sweet breath From the limp ferns as they dried underneath; I said: "I could live on here thus till death;" And queried in the green rays as I sate: "Why should I have to grow to man's estate, And this afar-noised World perambulate?"
Before and After Summer
Song Cycle by Gerald Finzi (1901 - 1956)
1. Childhood among the ferns  [sung text checked 1 time]
Authorship:
- by Thomas Hardy (1840 - 1928), from Daily Telegraph, first published 1928
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Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]2. Before and after summer  [sung text checked 1 time]
Looking forward to the spring One puts up with anything. On this February day, Though the winds leap down the street, Wintry scourgings seem but play, And these later shafts of sleet - Sharper pointed than the first - And these later snows - the worst - Are as a half-transparent blind Riddled by rays from sun behind. Shadows of the October pine Reach into this room of mine: On the pine there stands a bird; He is shadowed with the tree. Mutely perched he bills no word; Blank as I am even is he. For those happy suns are past, Fore-discerned in winter last. When went by their pleasure, then? I, alas, perceived not when.
Authorship:
- by Thomas Hardy (1840 - 1928), "Before and After Summer", from New Weekly, April 1914
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Researcher for this page: Ted Perry3. The self‑unseeing  [sung text checked 1 time]
Here is the ancient floor, Footworn and hollowed and thin, Here was the former door Where the dead feet walked in. She sat here in her chair, Smiling into the fire; He who played stood there, Bowing it higher and higher. Childlike, I danced in a dream; Blessings emblazoned that day; Everything glowed with a gleam; Yet we were looking away!
Authorship:
- by Thomas Hardy (1840 - 1928), "The self-unseeing", appears in Poems of the Past and Present, first published 1902
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Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]4. Overlooking the river  [sung text checked 1 time]
The swallows flew in the curves of an eight Above the river-gleam In the wet June's last beam: Like little crossbows animate The swallows flew in the curve of an eight Above the river-gleam. Planing up shavings of crystal spray A moor-hen darted out From the bank thereabout, And through the stream-shine ripped his way; Planing up shavings of crystal spray A moor-hen darted out. Closed were the kingcups; and the mead Dripped in monotonous green, Though the day's morning sheen Had shown it golden and honeybee'd; Closed were the kingcups; and the mead Dripped in monotonous green. And never I turned my head, alack, While these things met my gaze Through the pane's drop-drenched glaze, To see the more behind my back... O never I turned, but let, alack, These less things hold my gaze!
Authorship:
- by Thomas Hardy (1840 - 1928), "Overlooking the River Stour", appears in Moments of Vision and Miscellaneous Verses, first published 1917
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Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]5. Channel firing  [sung text checked 1 time]
That night your great guns, unawares, Shook all our coffins as we lay, And broke the chancel window-squares; We thought it was the Judgment-day And sat upright. While drearisome Arose the howl of wakened hounds: The mouse let fall the altar-crumb, The worms drew back into the mounds, The glebe cow drooled. Till God called, "No; It's gunnery practice out at sea Just as before you went below; The world is as it used to be: "All nations striving strong to make Red war yet redder. Mad as hatters They do no more for Christés sake Than you who are helpless in such matters. "That this is not the judgment-hour For some of them's a blessed thing; For if it were they'd have to scour Hell's floor for so much threatening ... "Ha, ha. It will be warmer when I blow the trumpet (if indeed I ever do; for you are men, And rest eternal sorely need)." So down we lay again. "I wonder, Will the world ever saner be," Said one, "than when He sent us under In our indifferent century!" And many a skeleton shook his head. "Instead of preaching forty year," My neighbour Parson Thirdly said, "I wish I had stuck to pipes and beer." Again the guns disturbed the hour, Roaring their readiness to avenge, As far inland as Stourton Tower, And Camelot, and starlit Stonehenge.
Authorship:
- by Thomas Hardy (1840 - 1928), "Channel Firing"
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First published in Fortnightly Review, May 1914See also "...and starlit Stonehenge", D. Jex's setting, which either refers to or uses this text.
Researcher for this page: Ted Perry
6. In the mind's eye  [sung text checked 1 time]
That was once her casement, And the taper nigh, Shining from within there, Beckoned, "Here am I!" Now, as then, I see her Moving at the pane; Ah, 'tis but her phantom Borne within my brain! Foremost in my vision Everywhere goes she; Change dissolves the landscapes, She abides with me. Shape so sweet and shy, Dear, Who can say thee nay? Never once do I, Dear, Wish thy ghost away.
Authorship:
- by Thomas Hardy (1840 - 1928), "The phantom", appears in Time's Laughingstocks and Other Verses, first published 1909, rev 1916 and a
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Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]7. The too short time  [sung text checked 1 time]
Nine leaves a minute Swim down shakily; Each one fain would spin it Straight to earth; but, see, How the sharp airs win it Slantwise away! Hear it say, "Now we have finished our summer show Of what we knew the way to do: Alas, not much! But, as things go, As fair as any. And night-time calls, And the curtain falls!" Sunlight goes on shining As if no frost were here, Blackbirds seem designing Where to build next year; Yet is warmth declining: And still the day seems to say, "Saw you how Dame Summer drest? Of all God taught her she bethought her! Alas, not much! And yet the best She could, within the too short time Granted her prime."
Authorship:
- by Thomas Hardy (1840 - 1928), "The Best she Could", appears in Human Shows, Far Phantasies, Songs, and Trifles, first published 1925
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Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]8. Epeisodia  [sung text checked 1 time]
Past the hills that peep Where the leaze is smiling, On and on beguiling Crisply-cropping sheep; Under boughs of brushwood Linking tree and tree In a shade of lushwood, There caressed we! Hemmed by city walls That outshut the sunlight, In a foggy dun light, Where the footstep falls With a pit-pat wearisome In its cadency On the flagstones drearisome There pressed we! Where in wild-winged crowds Blown birds show their whiteness Up against the lightness Of the clammy clouds; By the random river Pushing to the sea, Under bents that quiver There shall rest we.
Authorship:
- by Thomas Hardy (1840 - 1928), "Epeisodia", appears in Late Lyrics and Earlier with Many Other Verses, first published 1922
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Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]9. Amabel  [sung text checked 1 time]
I marked her ruined hues, Her custom-straitened views, And asked, "Can there indwell My Amabel?" I looked upon her gown, Once rose, now earthen brown; The change was like the knell Of Amabel. Her step's mechanic ways Had lost the life of May's; Her laugh, once sweet in swell, Spoilt Amabel. I mused: "Who sings the strain I sang ere warmth did wane? Who thinks its numbers spell His Amabel?" - Knowing that, though Love cease, Love's race shows undecrease; All find in dorp or dell An Amabel. - I felt that I could creep To some housetop, and weep, That Time the tyrant fell Ruled Amabel! I said (the while I sighed That love like ours had died), "Fond things I'll no more tell To Amabel, "But leave her to her fate, And fling across the gate, 'Till the Last Trump, farewell, O Amabel!'"
Authorship:
- by Thomas Hardy (1840 - 1928), "Amabel", appears in Wessex Poems and Other Verses, first published 1898
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Researcher for this page: Ted Perry10. He abjures love  [sung text checked 1 time]
At last I put off love, For twice ten years The daysman of my thought, And hope, and doing; Being ashamed thereof, And faint of fears And desolations, wrought In his pursuing. Since first in youthtime those Disquietings That heart-enslavement brings To hale and hoary, Became my housefellows, And, fool and blind, I turned from kith and kind To give him glory. I was as children be Who have no care; I did not shrink or sigh, I did not sicken; But lo, Love beckoned me, And I was bare, And poor, and starved, and dry, And fever-stricken. Too many times ablaze With fatuous fires, Enkindled by his wiles To new embraces, Did I, by wilful ways And baseless ires, Return the anxious smiles Of friendly faces. No more will now rate I The common rare, The midnight drizzle dew, The gray hour golden, The wind a yearning cry, The faulty fair, Things dreamt, of comelier hue Than things beholden!... - I speak as one who plumbs Life's dim profound, One who at length can sound Clear views and certain. But - after love what comes? A scene that lours, A few sad vacant hours, And then, the Curtain.
Authorship:
- by Thomas Hardy (1840 - 1928), "He abjures love", appears in Time's Laughingstocks and Other Verses, first published 1909
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Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]