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.'
Three Tennyson Songs
Song Cycle by Wim Zwaag (b. 1960)
1. Home they brought her warrior dead  [sung text not yet checked]
Language: English
Text Authorship:
- by Alfred Tennyson, Lord (1809 - 1892), no title, appears in The Princess, first published 1850
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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
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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: 347