by Thomas Hardy (1840 - 1928)
Language: English
By a wall the stranger now calls his, Was born of old a particular kiss, Without forethought in its genesis; Which in a trice took wing on the air. And where that spot is nothing shows: There ivy calmly grows, And no one knows What a birth was there! That kiss is gone where none can tell – Not even those who felt its spell: It cannot have died; that know we well. Somewhere it pursues its flight, One of a long procession of sounds Travelling aethereal rounds Far from earth’s bounds In the infinite.
Confirmed with Thomas Hardy, Moments of Vision and Miscellaneous Verses, London, MacMillan and Co, 1929, page 78.
Composition:
- Set to music by Ian Venables (b. 1955), "A Kiss", op. 15 (1992) [ voice and string quartet ]
Text Authorship:
- by Thomas Hardy (1840 - 1928), "A Kiss", appears in Moments of Vision and Miscellaneous Verses, first published 1917
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Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]
This text was added to the website: 2022-04-24
Line count: 16
Word count: 95