O lurcher-loving collier, black as night,
Follow your love across the smokeless hill;
Your lamp is out, and all the cages still;
Course for her heart and do not miss,
For Sunday soon is past and, Kate, go not so fast,
For Monday comes when none may kiss:
Be marble to his soot, and to his black be white.

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First published in New Verse, Summer 1938, as part of a documentary script titled "Coal Face"; Revised 1945.

Composition:

Set to music by Lennox Randal Francis Berkeley, Sir (1903 - 1989), "O lurcher-loving collier, black as night", op. 53 no. 2 (1958), published 1960 [ medium voice and piano ], from Five poems, no. 2, London, J. & W. Chester

Text Authorship:

• by W. H. (Wystan Hugh) Auden (1907 - 1973), "Madrigal", written 1935

See other settings of this text.

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

This text was added to the website: 2012-06-18
Line count: 7
Word count: 58