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Clouds that veil the midnight moon

Set by (Robert) Houston Bright (1916 - 1970), "Clouds that veil the midnight moon", published 1971 [ SSA chorus and piano ], stanza 1 of "Mutability" is followed by a stanza by the composer.  [sung text not yet checked]

Note: this setting is made up of several separate texts.


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Text Authorship:

  • by (Robert) Houston Bright (1916 - 1970)

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We are as clouds that veil the midnight moon;
How restlessly they speed, and gleam, and quiver,
Streaking the darkness radiantly! -- yet soon
Night closes round, and they are lost for ever:

Or like forgotten lyres, whose dissonant strings 
Give various response to each varying blast,
To whose frail frame no second motion brings
One mood or modulation like the last.

We rest. -- A dream has power to poison sleep;
We rise. -- One wandering thought pollutes the day; 
We feel, conceive or reason, laugh or weep;
Embrace fond woe, or cast our cares away:

It is the same! -- For, be it joy or sorrow,
The path of its departure still is free:
Man's yesterday may ne'er be like his morrow; 
Nought may endure but Mutability.

Text Authorship:

  • by Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792 - 1822), "Mutability", first published 1816

See other settings of this text.

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

  • CZE Czech (Čeština) (Jaroslav Vrchlický) , "Změna (Shelley 1)"
  • RUS Russian (Русский) (Konstantin Dmitrevich Bal'mont) , "Изменчивость"

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]


Author(s): (Robert) Houston Bright (1916 - 1970), Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792 - 1822)
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