A Poet to His Beloved

Song Cycle by Paul Schwartz (1907 - 1999)

?. He hears the cry of the sedge  [sung text not yet checked]

Language: English 
I wander by the edge 
Of this desolate lake 
Where wind cries in the sedge:
Until the axle break 
That keeps the stars in their round, 
And hands hurl in the deep 
The banners of East and West. 
And the girdle of light is unbound, 
Your breast will not lie by the breast
Of your beloved in sleep.

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

  • FRE French (Français) (Pierre Mathé) , copyright © 2015, (re)printed on this website with kind permission

Confirmed with W. B. Yeats, Later Poems, Macmillan and Co., London, 1926, page 32.

Note: first published in Dome, May 1898 as one of the "Aodh to Dectora. Three Songs", revised 1899, revised 1906.

Researcher for this page: David K. Smythe

?. A Poet to His Beloved  [sung text not yet checked]

Language: English 
I bring you with reverent hands
The books of my numberless dreams;
White woman that passion has worn
As the tide wears the dove-gray sands,
And with heart more old than the horn
That is brimmed from the pale fire of time:
White woman with numberless dreams
I bring you my passionate rhyme.

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

  • FRE French (Français) (Pierre Mathé) , "Un poète à sa bien-aimée", copyright © 2015, (re)printed on this website with kind permission

First published in Senate, May 1896 as part of "O'Sullivan the Red to Mary Lavell", revised 1899

Confirmed with W. B. Yeats, Later Poems, Macmillan and Co., London, 1926, page 22.


Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

?. He thinks of those who have spoken evil of his beloved  [sung text not yet checked]

Language: English 
Half close your eyelids, loosen your hair,
And dream about the great and their pride;
They have spoken against you everywhere,
But weigh this song with the great and their pride;
I made it out of a mouthful of air,
Their children's children shall say they have lied.

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First published in Dome, May 1898, as one of the "Aodh to Dectora. Three Songs", revised 1899, revised 1906

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

?. The Lover Pleads with His Friend for Old Friends  [sung text not yet checked]

Language: English 
Though you are in your shining days,
Voices among the crowd
And new friends busy with your praise,
Be not unkind or proud,
But think about old friends the most:
Time's bitter flood will rise,
Your beauty perish and be lost
For all eyes but these eyes.

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

  • ITA Italian (Italiano) (Ferdinando Albeggiani) , "L'innamorato supplica l'amica a favore dei vecchi amici", copyright © 2008, (re)printed on this website with kind permission

First published in Saturday Review, July 1897, as "Song", revised 1899 and 1906

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

?. He tells of the perfect beauty  [sung text not yet checked]

Language: English 
O cloud-pale eyelids, dream-dimmed eyes
The poets labouring all their days
To build a perfect beauty in rhyme
Are overthrown by a woman's gaze
And by the unlabouring brood of the skies:
And therefore my heart will bow, when dew
Is dropping sleep, until God burn time,
Before the unlabouring stars and you.

Text Authorship:

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

  • FRE French (Français) (Pierre Mathé) , copyright © 2015, (re)printed on this website with kind permission

Confirmed with W. B. Yeats, Later Poems, Macmillan and Co., London, 1926, page 31.

First published in Senate, May 1896, as part of "O'Sullivan the Red to Mary Lavell", revised 1899, revised 1906

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

?. To his heart, bidding it have no fear  [sung text not yet checked]

Language: English 
Be you still, be you still, trembling heart;
Remember the wisdom out of the old days:
Him who trembles before the flame and the flood,
And the winds that blow through the starry ways,
Let the starry winds and the flame and the flood
Cover over and hide, for he has no part
With the proud, majestical multitude.

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

  • ITA Italian (Italiano) (Ferdinando Albeggiani) , "Al suo cuore, esortandolo a non temere", copyright © 2013, (re)printed on this website with kind permission

Note: first published in Savoy, November 1896 as one of "Windlestraws", revised 1899 and 1922, renamed "To his heart, bidding it have no fear"

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]
Total word count: 317