What sight so lured him thro' the fields he knew As where earth's green stole into heaven's own hue, Far - far - away? What sound was dearest in his native dells? The mellow lin-lan-lone of evening bells Far - far - away? What vague world whisper, mystic pain or joy, Thro' those three words would haunt him when a boy, Far - far - away? A whisper from his dawn of life? A breath From some fair dawn beyond the doors of death Far - far - away? Far, far, how far? From o'er the gates of birth, The faint horizons, all the bounds of earth, Far - far - away? What charm in words, a charm no words could give? O dying words, can Music make you live Far - far - away?
Four Poems of Tennyson
Song Cycle by Ned Rorem (1923 - 2022)
?. Far‑Far‑Away  [sung text checked 1 time]
Language: English
Authorship:
- by Alfred Tennyson, Lord (1809 - 1892), "Far-Far-Away", appears in Demeter and Other Poems, first published 1889
See other settings of this text.
Researcher for this page: John Versmoren?. The sleeping palace  [sung text checked 1 time]
Language: English
The varying year with blade and sheaf
Clothes and reclothes the happy plains,
Here rests the sap within the leaf,
Here stays the blood along the veins.
[Faint shadows, vapours lightly curl'd,
Faint murmurs from the meadows come,
Like hints and echoes of the world
To spirits folded in the womb.]1
[Soft lustre bathes the range of urns
On every slanting terrace-lawn.
The fountain to his place returns
Deep in the garden lake withdrawn.]1
Here [droops]2 the banner on the tower,
On the hall-hearths the festal fires,
The peacock in his laurel bower,
The parrot in his gilded wires.
Roof-haunting martins warm their eggs:
In these, in those the life is stay'd.
The mantles from the golden pegs
Droop sleepily: no sound is made,
[Not even of a gnat that sings.
More like a picture seemeth all
Than those old portraits of old kings,
That watch the sleepers from the wall.]1
[ ... ]
Authorship:
- by Alfred Tennyson, Lord (1809 - 1892), "The sleeping palace", appears in Poems, in The Day-Dream, no. 2, Volume II, first published 1842
See other settings of this text.
View original text (without footnotes)1 omitted by Rorem.
2 Rorem: "stoops"
Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]
Total word count: 489