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Three Poems of Fiona Macleod

Song Cycle by Charles Tomlinson Griffes (1884 - 1920)

1. The Lament of Ian the Proud
 (Sung text)

Language: English 
What is this crying that I hear in the wind?
Is it the old sorrow and the old grief? 
Or is it a new thing coming, a whirling leaf
About the gray hair of me who am weary and blind?
I know not what it is, but on the moor above the shore
There is a stone which the purple nets of heather bind,
And thereon is writ: She will return no more.
O blown, whirling leaf, and the old grief,
And wind crying to me who am old and blind!

Text Authorship:

  • by William Sharp (1855 - 1905), as Fiona Macleod, "The Lament of Ian the Proud", appears in From the Hills of Dream, first published 1901

See other settings of this text.

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

  • FRE French (Français) (Guy Laffaille) , "La complainte de Ian le fier", copyright © 2010, (re)printed on this website with kind permission

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

2. Thy dark eyes to mine
 (Sung text)

Language: English 
Thy dark eyes to mine, Eilidh,
Lamps of desire!
O how my soul leaps
Leaps to their fire!

Sure, now, if I in heaven,
Dreaming in bliss,
Heard but a whisper,
But the lost echo even
Of one such kiss -- 

All of the Soul of me
Would leap afar -- 
If that called me to thee
Aye, I would leap afar
A falling star!

Text Authorship:

  • by William Sharp (1855 - 1905), as Fiona Macleod, "Thy dark eyes to mine", appears in From the Hills of Dream, first published 1901

See other settings of this text.

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

  • FRE French (Français) (Guy Laffaille) , "Tes yeux sombres vers les miens", copyright © 2010, (re)printed on this website with kind permission

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

3. The Rose of the Night
 (Sung text)

Language: English 
The dark rose of thy mouth
Draw nigher, draw nigher!
Thy breath is the wind of the south,
A wind of fire,
The wind and the rose and darkness, 
O Rose of my Desire!

Deep silence of the night,
Husht like a breathless lyre,
Save the sea's thunderous might,
Dim, menacing, dire,
Silence and wind and sea, they are thee, 
O Rose of my Desire!

As a wind-eddying flame
Leaping higher and higher,
Thy soul, thy secret name,
Leaps thro' Death's blazing pyre,
Kiss me, Imperishable Fire, dark Rose, 
O Rose of my Desire!

Text Authorship:

  • by William Sharp (1855 - 1905), as Fiona Macleod, "The Rose of the Night", appears in The Hour of Beauty, first published 1907

Go to the general single-text view

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

  • FRE French (Français) (Guy Laffaille) , "La Rose de la Nuit", copyright © 2010, (re)printed on this website with kind permission

Author's note: There is an old mystical legend that when a soul among the dead woos a soul among the living, so that both may be reborn as one, the sign is a dark rose, or a rose of flame, in the heart of the night.

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]
Total word count: 250
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