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by Algernon Charles Swinburne (1837 - 1909)

The hounds of spring
 (Sung text for setting by D. Holman)
 See original
Language: English 
When the hounds of spring are on winter's traces,
  The mother of months in meadow or plain
Fills the shadows and windy places
  With lisp of leaves and ripple of rain;
And the brown bright nightingale amorous 
Is half assuaged for Itylus,
For the Thracian ships and the foreign faces.
  The tongueless vigil, and all the pain.

 ... 

For winter's rains and ruins are over,
  And all the season of snows and sins;
The days dividing lover and lover,
  The light that loses, the night that wins;
And time remember'd is grief forgotten,
And frosts are slain and flowers begotten,
And in green underwood and cover
  Blossom by blossom the spring begins.

Composition:

    Set to music by Derek Holman (b. 1931), "The hounds of spring", 2009, first performed 2009, stanzas 1,4 [ voice and piano ], from The Four Seasons, no. 3

Text Authorship:

  • by Algernon Charles Swinburne (1837 - 1909), no title, appears in Atalanta in Calydon, first published 1865

See other settings of this text.

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

  • POL Polish (Polski) (Maria Konopnicka) , "Gdy gończe wiosny", Warsaw, Gebethner i Wolff, first published 1904


Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

This text was added to the website: 2009-01-27
Line count: 56
Word count: 429

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