My fairest child, I have no song to give you; No lark could [pipe in]1 skies so dull and gray; [Yet, if you will, one quiet hint I'll leave]2 you, For [every]3 day. I'll [tell]4 you how to sing a clearer carol Than lark [who]5 hails the dawn or breezy down; To [earn]6 yourself a purer poet's laurel Than Shakespeare's crown. Be good, sweet maid, and let who [can]7 be clever; Do [lovely]8 things, not dream them, all day long; And so make Life, Death, and that vast For Ever One grand sweet song.
An Album of Eight Songs
Song Cycle by Sebastian Benson Schlesinger (1837 - 1917)
?. My fairest child [sung text not yet checked]
Language: English
Text Authorship:
- by Charles Kingsley (1819 - 1875), "A Farewell: To C. E. G.", written 1856, appears in Andromeda and Other Poems, first published 1858
See other settings of this text.
View original text (without footnotes)Confirmed with Frances Eliza Grenfell Kingsley, Charles Kingsley. His Letters and Memories of His Life. Edited by His Wife, H.S. King & Company, 1877, page 487. Note: C. E. G. is the author's niece, Charlotte Grenfell (later Mrs. Theodore Walrond). The second verse was left out by accident when the poem was first published.
1 King: "sing 'neath"2 King: "But, if you will, a quiet hint I'll give"; Paine: "Yet e'er we part, one lesson I can leave"
3 King: "ev'ry"
4 King: "teach"
5 King: "that"
6 King: "win"
7 Paine: "will"
8 King, Paine: "noble"
Research team for this page: Emily Ezust [Administrator] , Andrew Schneider [Guest Editor]
Total word count: 102