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Four Impressions

Song Cycle by Charles Tomlinson Griffes (1884 - 1920)

1. Le jardin
 (Sung text)

Language: English 
The lily's withered chalice falls 
Around its rod of dusty gold, 
And from the beech-trees on the wold 
The last wood-pigeon coos and calls. 

The gaudy leonine sunflower 
Hangs black and barren on its stalk, 
And down the windy garden walk 
The dead leaves scatter, -- hour by hour. 

Pale privet-petals white as milk 
Are blown into a snowy mass: 
The roses lie upon the grass 
Like little shreds of crimson silk.

Text Authorship:

  • by Oscar Wilde (1854 - 1900), "Le Jardin"

See other settings of this text.

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

  • HUN Hungarian (Magyar) (Dezső Kosztolányi) , "Le jardin"

Appeared in Our Continent, Feb. 1882 as one of the Impressions

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

2. Impression du matin
 (Sung text)

Language: English 
The Thames nocturne of blue and gold
Changed to a Harmony in grey:
A barge with ochre-coloured hay
Dropt from the wharf: and chill and cold

The yellow fog came creeping down
The bridges, till the houses' walls
Seemed changed to shadows, and S. Paul's
Loomed like a bubble o'er the town.

Then suddenly arose the clang
Of waking life; the streets were stirred
With country waggons: and a bird
Flew to the glistening roofs and sang.

But one pale woman all alone,
The daylight kissing her wan hair,
Loitered beneath the gas lamps' flare,
With lips of flame and heart of stone.

Text Authorship:

  • by Oscar Wilde (1854 - 1900), "Impression de Matin", from World (March 1881), revised same year and also in 1895

See other settings of this text.

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

  • HUN Hungarian (Magyar) (Dezső Kosztolányi) , "Impression du matin"

Note: sometimes titled "Impression du Matin"; also the 'e' at the end of "nocturne" in line one is sometimes omitted.
Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

3. La Mer
 (Sung text)

Language: English 
A white mist drifts across the shrouds, 
A wild moon in this wintry sky 
Gleams like an angry lion's eye 
Out of a mane of tawny clouds. 

The muffled steersman at the wheel 
Is but a shadow in the gloom; - 
And in the throbbing engine-room 
Leap the long rode of polished steel. 

The shattered storm has left its trace 
Upon this huge and heaving dome, 
For the thin threads of yellow foam 
Float on the waves like ravelled lace.

Text Authorship:

  • by Oscar Wilde (1854 - 1900), "La Mer"

See other settings of this text.

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

  • HUN Hungarian (Magyar) (Dezső Kosztolányi) , "La mer"

Appeared in Our Continent, Feb. 1882 as one of the Impressions

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

4. Le Réveillon
 (Sung text)

Language: English 
The sky is laced with fitful red,
The circling mists and shadows flee,
The dawn is rising from the sea,
Like a white lady from her bed.

And jagged brazen arrows fall
Athwart the feathers of the night,
And a long wave of yellow light
Breaks silently on tower and hall,

And spreading wide across the wold
Wakes into flight some fluttering bird,
And all the chestnut tops are stirred,
And all the branches streaked with gold.

Text Authorship:

  • by Oscar Wilde (1854 - 1900), "Le Réveillon", from Poems as one of the "Impressions", first published 1881

See other settings of this text.

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

  • HUN Hungarian (Magyar) (Dezső Kosztolányi) , "Le réveillon"

Note: first published in Irish Monthly (February 1877)m in "Lotus Leaves" (an untitled portion).

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]
Total word count: 330
Gentle Reminder

This website began in 1995 as a personal project by Emily Ezust, who has been working on it full-time without a salary since 2008. Our research has never had any government or institutional funding, so if you found the information here useful, please consider making a donation. Your help is greatly appreciated!
–Emily Ezust, Founder

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