Up on their brooms the Witches stream, Crooked and black in the crescent's gleam; One foot high, and one foot low, Bearded, cloaked, and cowled, they go, 'Neath Charlie's Wain they twitter and tweet, And away they swarm 'neath the Dragon's feet, With a whoop and a flutter they swing and sway, And surge pell-mell down the Milky Way. [Betwixt]1 the legs of the glittering Chair They hover and squeak in the empty air. Then round they swoop past the glimmering Lion To where Sirius barks behind huge Orion; Up, then, and over to wheel amain, Under the silver, and home again.
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View original text (without footnotes)1 Carwithen: "Between"
Text Authorship:
- by Walter De la Mare (1873 - 1956), "The Ride-by-Nights", appears in Peacock Pie: A Book of Rhymes, in 6. Witches and Fairies, no. 2, first published 1913 [author's text checked 1 time against a primary source]
Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive):
- by (Edward) Benjamin Britten (1913 - 1976), "The ride-by-nights", published 1932 [ boys' chorus or SA chorus and piano ], from Three Two-Part Songs [sung text not yet checked]
- by Doreen Carwithen (1922 - 2003), "The ride-by-nights" [ voice and piano ] [sung text checked 1 time]
- by Cecil Armstrong Gibbs (1889 - 1960), "The ride-by-nights" [sung text not yet checked]
- by Colin Hand (1929 - 2015), "The ride-by-nights", published 1961 [ SS chorus and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
- by Herbert Norman Howells (1892 - 1983), "Up on their brooms" [ voice and piano ], from Three Songs, no. 3, incomplete [sung text not yet checked]
- by Elaine Hugh-Jones (b. 1927), "The ride-by-nights", 1966-71 [ soprano or tenor and piano ], from Eight Songs of Walter de la Mare, no. 8 [sung text not yet checked]
- by Hugh Stevenson Roberton, Sir (1874 - 1952), "The ride-by-nights", published 1943 [ SSA chorus a cappella ], from Peacock Pie [sung text not yet checked]
- by Percy Marshall Young (1912 - 2004), "The ride-by-nights", published 1951 [ duet for 2 sopranos with piano ], from Three songs from "Peacock Pie" [sung text not yet checked]
Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]
This text was added to the website: 2008-01-11
Line count: 14
Word count: 102