Soliloquy

Song Cycle by Christopher Roland Brown (b. 1943)

Word count: 251

?. All hushed and still within the house  [sung text not yet checked]

All hushed and still within the house
Without - all [wind and driving rain]1.
But something whispers to my mind
Through [rain and through the]2 wailing wind -

- Never again,
Never again? Why not again?
Memory has power as real as [thine]3.

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Note: in the Fisk work, this is sung by Lockwood
1 Fisk: "storm and driving wind"
2 Fisk: "snow and storm and"
3 Fisk: "time"

Researcher for this text: Terry Fisk

?. Come, the wind may never again  [sung text not yet checked]

Come, the wind may never again
Blow as now it blows for us;
And the stars may never again shine as now they shine;
Long before October returns,
Sea of blood will have parted us;
And you must crush the love in your heart, and I the love in mine!

For face to face will our kindred stand,
And as they are so shall we be;
Forgetting how the same sweet earth has borne and nourished all -
One must fight for the people's power,
And one for the rights of Royalty;
And each be ready to give his life to work the other's fall.

The chance of war we cannot shun,
Nor would we shrink from our fathers' cause,
Nor dread Death more because the hand that gives it may be dear;
We must bear to see Ambition rule
Over Love, with his iron law;
Must yield our blood for a stranger's sake, and refuse ourselves a tear!

So, the wind may never again
Blow as now it blows for us;
And the stars may never again shine as now they shine;
Next October, the cannon's roar
From hostile ranks may be urging us --
Me to strike for your life's blood, and you to strike for mine.

Authorship

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]