With stammering lips and insufficient sound I strive and struggle to deliver right That music of my nature, day and night Wich dream and thought and feeling interwound, And inly answering all the senses round With octaves of a mystic depth and height Which step out grandly to the infinite From the dark edges of the sensual ground. This song of soul I sruggle to outbear Through portals of the sense, sublime and whole, And utter all myself into the air; But if did it, - as the thunder-roll Breaks its own cloud, my flesh would perish there Before that dread apocalypse of soul.
The Soul's Expression
Song Cycle by Samuel Coleridge-Taylor (1875 - 1912)
1. The Soul's Expression  [sung text not yet checked]
Language: English
Authorship:
- by Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806 - 1861), "The Soul's Expression"
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First published in Graham's Magazine, July 1843.Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]
2. Tears  [sung text not yet checked]
Language: English
Thank God, bless God, all ye who suffer not More grief than ye can weep for. That is well-- That is light grieving ! lighter, none befell Since Adam forfeited the primal lot. Tears ! what are tears ? The babe weeps in its cot, The mother singing, at her marriage-bell The bride weeps, and before the oracle Of high-faned hills the poet has forgot Such moisture on his cheeks. Thank God for grace, Ye who weep only ! If, as some have done, Ye grope tear-blinded in a desert place And touch but tombs,--look up I those tears will run Soon in long rivers down the lifted face, And leave the vision clear for stars and sun.
Authorship:
- by Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806 - 1861), "Tears", appears in Poems, Volume I, first published 1844
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Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]3. Grief  [sung text not yet checked]
Language: English
I tell you, hopeless grief is passionless; That only men incredulous of despair, Half-taught in anguish, through the midnight air Beat upward to God's throne in loud access Of shrieking and reproach. Full desertness In souls as countries lieth silent-bare Under the blanching, vertical eye-glare Of the absolute Heavens. Deep-hearted man, express Grief for thy Dead in silence like to death -- Most like a monumental statue set In everlasting watch and moveless woe Till itself crumble to the dust beneath. Touch it; the marble eyelids are not wet: If it could weep, it could arise and go.
Authorship:
- by Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806 - 1861)
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First published in Graham's Magazine, 1842, rev. 1844Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]
4. Comfort  [sung text not yet checked]
Language: English
Speak low to me, my Saviour, low and sweet From out the hallelujahs, sweet and low Lest I should fear and fall, and miss Thee so Who art not missed by any that entreat. Speak to mo as to Mary at thy feet ! And if no precious gums my hands bestow, Let my tears drop like amber while I go In reach of thy divinest voice complete In humanest affection -- thus, in sooth, To lose the sense of losing. As a child, Whose song-bird seeks the wood for evermore Is sung to in its stead by mother's mouth Till, sinking on her breast, love-reconciled, He sleeps the faster that he wept before.
Authorship:
- by Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806 - 1861), "Comfort", appears in Poems, Volume I, first published 1844
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Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]Total word count: 432