That hobnailed goblin, the bob-tailed Hob, Said, "It is time I began to rob." For strawberries bob, hob-nob with the pearls Of cream (like the curls of the dairy girls), And flushed with the heat and fruitish ripe Are the gowns of the maids who dance to the pipe. Chase a maid? She's afraid! "Go gather a bob-cherry kiss from a tree, But don't, I prithee, come bothering me!" She said - As she fled. The snouted satyrs drink clouted cream 'Neath the chestnut-trees is thick as a dream; So I went And leant, Where none but the doltish coltish wind Nuzzled my hand for what could find. As I neighed I said, "Don't touch me, sir, don't touch me, I say, You'll tumble my strawberries into the hay. Those snow-mounds of silver that bee, the spring, Has sucked his sweetness from, I will bring With fair-haired plants and with apples chill For the great god Pan's high altar ...I'll spill Not one!" So, in fun We rolled on the grass and began to run Chasing that gaudy satyr the Sun; Over the haycocks, away we ran Crying, "Here be berries as sunburnt as Pan!" But Silenus Has seen us... He runs like the rough satyr Sun. Come away!
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Composition:
- Set to music by William Walton (1902 - 1983), "Country dance", published 1951, first performed 1926 [ reciter and chamber ensemble ], from Façade
Text Authorship:
- by Edith Sitwell (1887 - 1964), "Country dance", appears in Bucolic Comedies, first published 1923
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Researcher for this page: Dan Eggleston
This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 52
Word count: 208