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Three Tennyson Songs

Song Cycle by Wim Zwaag (b. 1960)

1. Home they brought her warrior dead  [sung text not yet checked]

Language: English 
Home they brought her warrior dead:
  She nor swooned, nor uttered cry:
All her maidens, watching, said,
  'She must weep or she [will]1 die.'

Then they praised him, soft and low,
  Called him worthy to be loved,
Truest friend and noblest foe;
  Yet she neither spoke nor moved.

Stole a maiden from her place,
  Lightly to the warrior stept,
Took the face-cloth from the face;
  Yet she neither moved nor wept.

Rose a nurse of ninety years,
  Set his child upon her knee --
Like summer tempest came her tears --
  'Sweet my child, I live for thee.'

Text Authorship:

  • by Alfred Tennyson, Lord (1809 - 1892), no title, appears in The Princess, first published 1850

See other settings of this text.

View original text (without footnotes)
1 Holst: "must"

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

2. Dark house, by which once more I stand  [sung text not yet checked]

Language: English 
  Dark house, by which once more I stand
    Here in the long unlovely street,
    Doors, where my heart was used to beat
So quickly, waiting for a hand,

A hand that can be clasp'd no more -- 
    Behold me, for I cannot sleep,
    And like a guilty thing I creep
At earliest morning to the door.

He is not here; but far away
    The noise of life begins again,
    And ghastly thro' the drizzling rain
On the bald street breaks the blank day.

Text Authorship:

  • by Alfred Tennyson, Lord (1809 - 1892), no title, written 1849, appears in In Memoriam A. H. H. obiit MDCCCXXXIII, no. 7, first published 1850

See other settings of this text.

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

3. When will the stream be weary of floating  [sung text not yet checked]

Language: English 
When will the stream be [aweary of flowing]1
Under my eye?
When will the wind be aweary of blowing
Over the sky?
When will the clouds be aweary of fleeting?
When will the heart be aweary of beating?
And nature die?
Never, oh! never, nothing will die;
The stream flows,
The wind blows,
The cloud fleets,
The heart beats,
Nothing will die.

Nothing will die;
All things will change
Thro' eternity.
'Tis the world's winter;
Autumn and summer
Are gone long ago;
Earth is dry to the centre,
But spring, a new comer,
A spring rich and strange,
Shall make the winds blow
Round and round,
Thro' and thro',
Here and there,
Till the air
And the ground
Shall be fill'd with life anew.

The world was never made;
It will change, but it will not fade.
So let the wind range;
For even and morn
Ever will be
Thro' eternity.
Nothing was born;
Nothing will die;
All things will change.

Text Authorship:

  • by Alfred Tennyson, Lord (1809 - 1892), "Nothing will die"

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View original text (without footnotes)
1 Zwaag: "weary of floating"; further changes may exist not shown above.

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]
Total word count: 342
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