Songs of Desperation and Comfort

Song Cycle by John Eaton (1935 - 2015)

1. Holy Sonnet no. XIV  [sung text not yet checked]

Language: English 
Batter my heart, three person'd God; for you
As yet but knocke, breathe, shine, and seeke to mend;
That I may rise, and stand, o'erthrow me, and bend
Your force, to breake, blowe, burn and make me new.
I, like an usurpt towne, to another due,
Labour to admit you, but Oh, to no end,
Reason your viceroy in mee, mee should defend
But is captiv'd, and proves weake or untrue.
Yet dearely I love you, and would be loved faine,
But am betroth'd unto your enemie:
Divorce mee, untie, or breake that knot againe,
Take mee to you, imprison mee, for I
Except you enthrall mee, never shall be free,
Nor ever chaste, except you ravish mee.

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

  • FRE French (Français) (Guy Laffaille) , copyright © 2010, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
  • GER German (Deutsch) (Daniel Johannsen) , copyright © 2020, (re)printed on this website with kind permission

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

2. Lullaby
 (Sung text)

Language: English 
Peace gently light upon you
 [ ... ]

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3. Lear on the Heath
 (Sung text)

Language: English 
Blow, winds, and crack your cheeks! rage! blow!	 
You cataracts and hurricanoes, spout
Till you have drench'd our steeples, drown'd the cocks!
You sulphurous and thought-executing fires,
Vaunt-couriers of oak-cleaving thunderbolts,
Singe my white head! And thou, all-shaking thunder,
Strike flat the thick rotundity o' the world!
Crack nature's moulds, all germens spill at once
That make ingrateful man!

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4. To Old Roscoff: Lullaby in North‑West minor
 (Sung text)

Language: English 
Old nest of filibusters, lair
 [ ... ]

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5. Blind man's cry
 (Sung text)

Language: English 
The murdered eye is not dead yet
 [ ... ]

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Total word count: 917