Beautiful must be the mountains whence ye come, And bright in the fruitful valleys the streams, wherefrom Ye learn your song: Where are those starry woods? O might I wander there, Among the flowers, which in that heavenly air Bloom the year long! [Nay,]1 barren are those mountains and spent the streams: Our song is the voice of desire, that haunts our dreams, A throe of the heart, Whose pining visions dim, forbidden hopes profound, No dying cadence nor long sigh can sound, For all our art. Alone, aloud in the raptured ear of men We pour our dark nocturnal secret; and then, As night is withdrawn [From these sweet-springing meads and bursting boughs of May,]1 Dream, while the innumerable choir of day Welcome the dawn.
Three Songs for High Voice and Piano
Song Cycle by David Campbell Dorward (b. 1933)
?. Beautiful must be the mountains whence ye come  [sung text not yet checked]
Language: English
Text Authorship:
- by Robert Seymour Bridges (1844 - 1930), "Nightingales", appears in The Shorter Poems of Robert Bridges, in 5. Book V, first published 1893
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View original text (without footnotes)1 omitted by Weir.
Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]
?. I have loved flowers that fade  [sung text not yet checked]
Language: English
I have loved flowers that fade, Within whose magic tents Rich hues have marriage made With sweet unmemoried scents: A honeymoon delight, A joy of love at sight, That ages in an hour My song be like a flower!. I have loved airs that die Before their charm is writ Along a liquid sky Trembling to welcome it. Notes, that with pulse of fire Proclaim the spirit's desire, Then die, and are nowhere My song be like an air!. Die, song, die like a breath, And wither as a bloom; Fear not a flowery death, Dread not an airy tomb! Fly with delight, fly hence! 'Twas thine love's tender sense To feast; now on thy bier Beauty shall shed a tear.
Text Authorship:
- by Robert Seymour Bridges (1844 - 1930), no title, appears in Poems, first published 1879
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Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]Total word count: 247