by Thomas Hardy (1840 - 1928)
Sweet cyder See original
Language: English
Sweet cyder is a great thing, A great thing to me, Spinning down to Weymouth town By Ridgway thirstily, And maid and mistress summoning Who tend the hostelry: O cyder is a great thing, A great thing to me! The dance it is a great thing, A great thing to me, With candles lit and partners fit For night-long revelry. And going home when day-dawning Peeps pale upon the lea: O dancing is a great thing, A great thing to me! Love is, yea, a great thing, A great thing to me, When, having drawn across the lawn In darkness silently, A figure flits like one a-wing Out from the nearest tree: O love is, yes, a great thing, A great thing to me! Will these be always great things Great things to me? . . . Let it befall that One will call, "Soul, I have need of thee": What then? Joy-jaunts, impassioned flings, Love, and its ecstasy Will always have been great things, A great thing to me!
Composition:
- Set to music by Douglas Steele (1910 - 1999), "Sweet cyder" [ voice and piano ], Manchester, Forsyth Publications
Text Authorship:
- by Thomas Hardy (1840 - 1928), "Great things", appears in Moments of Vision and Miscellaneous Verses, first published 1917
See other settings of this text.
Researcher for this page: Ted Perry
This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 32
Word count: 172