by Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792 - 1822)
The Song of Asia See original
Language: English
...
My soul is an enchanted boat,
Which, like a sleeping swan, doth float
Upon the silver waves of thy sweet singing;
And thine doth like an angel sit
Beside a helm conducting it,
Whilst all the winds with melody are ringing.
It seems to float ever, forever,
Upon that many-winding river,
Between mountains, woods, abysses,
A paradise of wildernesses!
Till, like one in slumber bound,
Borne to the ocean, I float down, around,
Into a sea profound, of ever-spreading sound:
Meanwhile thy spirit lifts its pinions
In music's most serene dominions;
Catching the winds that fan that happy heaven.
And we sail on, away, afar,
Without a course, without a star,
But, by the instinct of sweet music driven;
Till through Elysian garden islets
By thee, most beautiful of pilots,
Where never mortal pinnace glided,
The boat of my desire is guided;
Realms where the air we breathe is love,
Which in the winds on the waves doth move,
Harmonizing this earth with what we feel above.
Composition:
- Set to music by Charles Villiers Stanford, Sir (1852 - 1924), "The Song of Asia", op. 125 (Four songs) no. 2 (1911), published 1911, stanzas 2-3 [ voice and piano ], Stainer & Bell
Text Authorship:
- by Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792 - 1822), appears in Prometheus Unbound, lines of Asia from Act II scene V, lines 39-48 and 72-97.
See other settings of this text.
Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]
This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 36
Word count: 243