Pack, clouds, away! and welcome, day!
  With night we banish sorrow.
Sweet air, blow soft; mount, [larks]1, aloft
  To give my Love good-morrow!
Wings from the wind to please her mind,
  Notes from the lark I'll borrow:
Bird, prune thy wing! nightingale, sing!
  To give my Love good-morrow!
      To give my Love good-morrow
      Notes from them [both I'll]2 borrow.

Wake from thy nest, robin-red-breast!
  Sing, birds, in every furrow!
And from each [bill]3, let music shrill
  Give my fair Love good-morrow!
Blackbird and thrush in every bush,
  Stare, linnet, and cocksparrow!
You pretty elves, [among]4 yourselves
  Sing my fair Love good-morrow;
      [To give my Love good-morrow
      Sing, birds, in every furrow!]5

About the headline (FAQ)

View original text (without footnotes)

Confirmed with The Oxford Book of English Verse, edited by Arthur Quiller-Couch, OUP, 1919, Item 205.

Glossary
Stare = starling

¹ Ewazen: "lark"
² Ewazen: "I'll all"
³ Chadwick: "hill" (typo?)
⁴ Chadwick: "amongst"
⁵ Ewazen:

Sing, birds, in every furrow!
Pack, clouds away! and welcome day!
With night we banish sorrow.
Sweet air, blow soft; Goodmorrow! Goodmorrow!

Text Authorship:

• by Thomas Heywood (?1574 - 1641), "Matin Song" [author's text checked 2 times 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 Alan Bullard (b. 1947), "Matin song" [sung text not yet checked]
• by George Whitefield Chadwick (1854 - 1931), "Pack, clouds, away", published 1910 [ TTBB quartet or chorus with piano ad libitum ], from Three Partsongs, no. 3 [sung text checked 1 time]
• by Ellen Dickson (1819 - 1878), as Dolores, "Pack Clouds away", published 1871 [ voice and piano ], London [sung text not yet checked]
• by Eric Ewazen (b. 1954), "Matin Song" [sung text checked 1 time]
• by Joseph Holbrooke (1878 - 1958), "Pack, clouds, away", op. 76 (Three Songs) no. 2, published 1920 [ voice and piano and optional string quartet ] [sung text not yet checked]
• by Roger Quilter (1877 - 1953), "Morning Song", op. 24 no. 2, published 1922, first performed 1922 [ voice and piano ], from Five English Love Lyrics, no. 2, London, Chappell & Co. Confirmed with CD Booklet Roger Quilter - The Elizabethan & Jacobean Lyrics, Nimbus Records, NI5969. [sung text checked 1 time]
• by John Theodore Livingston Raynor (1909 - 1970), "Pack, Clouds, Away", op. 346 (1952) [ voice and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
• by John Theodore Livingston Raynor (1909 - 1970), "Pack, Clouds Away", op. 491 (1957) [sung text not yet checked]

Research team for this page: Emily Ezust [Administrator] , Iain Sneddon [Guest Editor]

This text was added to the website: 2009-03-23
Line count: 20
Word count: 111