Softly along the road of evening,
In a twilight dim with rose,
Wrinkled with age, and drenched with dew
Old Nod, the shepherd, goes.
His drowsy flock streams on before him,
Their fleeces charged with gold,
To where the sun's last beam leans low
On Nod the shepherd's fold.
The hedge is quick and green with briar,
From their sand the conies creep;
And all the birds that fly in heaven
Flock singing home to sleep.
His lambs outnumber a noon's roses,
Yet, when night's shadows fall,
His blind old sheep-dog, Slumber-soon,
Misses not one of all.
His are the quiet steeps of dreamland,
The waters of no-more-pain;
His ram's bell rings 'neath an arch of stars,
"Rest, rest, and rest again."
S. Harmati sets stanzas 1, 2, 5
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View text with all available footnotesText Authorship:
- by Walter De la Mare (1873 - 1956), "Nod", appears in The Listeners and Other Poems, first published 1912 [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), "Nod", c1929 [ voice and piano ], incomplete [sung text not yet checked]
- by Phyllis Campbell (1891 - 1974), "Nod the shepherd", copyright © 2018 [ voice and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
- by (Henry) Walford Davies, Sir (1869 - 1941), "Nod", 1924, published 1931 [ medium voice and piano ], from Twenty-one songs, no. 16 [sung text not yet checked]
- by Donald Ford , "Nod", published 1927 [sung text not yet checked]
- by Cecil Armstrong Gibbs (1889 - 1960), "Nod", op. 12 (Two Songs) no. 1, published 1921, first performed 1918 [ voice and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
- by Sandor Harmati (1892 - 1936), "Nod", published 1928, stanzas 1,2,5 [ voice and piano ], in the collection New Songs for New Voices [sung text checked 1 time]
- by Victor Harris (1869 - 1943), "Nod", 1921, published c1922 [ voice and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
- by Rosalie Housman (1890? - 1949), "Nod", 1930 [ voice and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
- by Sven Lekberg (1899 - 1984), "Softly along the road of evening", published 1964 [ satb chorus a cappella ] [sung text not yet checked]
- by Dorothy Pilling (1910 - 1998), "Nod" [ voice and piano ], confirmed with a score [sung text checked 1 time]
- by Arthur Shepherd (1880 - 1958), "Softly along the road of evening", published 1961 [ high voice and piano ], from Seven Songs [sung text not yet checked]
- by David Stanley Smith (1877 - 1949), "Nod", 1919 [ voice and piano ], from Portraits [sung text not yet checked]
- by John Tobin (1891 - 1980), "Nod", published 1946 [ medium voice and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
- by John Ramsden Williamson (1929 - 2015), "Nod" [ baritone and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):
- CAT Catalan (Català) (Salvador Pila) , copyright © 2024, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
Research team for this page: Emily Ezust [Administrator] , Garrett Medlock [Guest Editor]
This text was added to the website: 2004-05-10
Line count: 20
Word count: 122