Three Poems of Walter de la Mare

Song Cycle by David Arditti (b. 1964)

1. Come!
 (Sung text)

Language: English 
From an island of the sea
Sounds a voice that summons me, -
"Turn thy prow, sailor, come
With the wind home!"

Sweet o'er the rainbow foam, 
Sweet in the treetops, "Come, 
Co-ral, cliff, and watery sand,
Sea-wave to land!

"Droop not thy lids at night, 
Furl not thy sails from flight!..."
Cease, cease, above the wave,
Deep as the grave!

O, what voice of the salt sea
Calls me so insistently?
Echoes, echoes, night and day,
"Come, come away!"

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Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

2. The Flower
 (Sung text)

Language: English 
Listen, I who love thee well
Have travelled far, and secrets tell;
Cold the moon that gleams thine eyes,
Yet beneath her further skies
Rests for thee, a paradise.

I have plucked a flower in proof,
Frail, in earthly light, forsooth:
See, invisible it lies
In this palm: now veil thine eyes:
Quaff its fragrancies!

Would indeed my throat had skill
To breathe thee music, faint and still --
Music learned in dreaming deep
In those lands, from Echo's lip....
'Twould lull thy soul to sleep.

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Please note: this text, provided here for educational and research use, is in the public domain in Canada and the U.S., but it may still be copyright in other legal jurisdictions. The LiederNet Archive makes no guarantee that the above text is public domain in your country. Please consult your country's copyright statutes or a qualified IP attorney to verify whether a certain text is in the public domain in your country or if downloading or distributing a copy constitutes fair use. The LiederNet Archive assumes no legal responsibility or liability for the copyright compliance of third parties.

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

3. England
 (Sung text)

Language: English 
No lovelier hills than thine have laid
My tired thoughts to rest:
No peace of lovelier valleys made
Like peace within my breast.

Thine are the woods whereto my soul,
Out of the noontide beam,
Flees for a refuge green and cool
And tranquil as a dream.

Thy breaking seas like trumpets peal;
Thy clouds how oft have I
Watched their bright towers of silence steal
Into infinity!

My heart within me faints to roam
In thought even far from thee:
Thine be the grave whereto I come,
And thine my darkness be.

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Please note: this text, provided here for educational and research use, is in the public domain in Canada and the U.S., but it may still be copyright in other legal jurisdictions. The LiederNet Archive makes no guarantee that the above text is public domain in your country. Please consult your country's copyright statutes or a qualified IP attorney to verify whether a certain text is in the public domain in your country or if downloading or distributing a copy constitutes fair use. The LiederNet Archive assumes no legal responsibility or liability for the copyright compliance of third parties.

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]
Total word count: 257