by Alfred Edward Housman (1859 - 1936)

Language: English 
How clear, how lovely bright,
How beautiful to sight
  Those beams of morning play;
How heaven laughs out with glee
Where, like a bird set free,
Up from the eastern sea
  Soars the delightful day.

To-day I shall be strong,
No more shall yield to wrong,
  Shall squander life no more;
Days lost, I know not how,
I shall retrieve them now;
Now I shall keep the vow
  I never kept before.

Ensanguining the skies
How heavily it dies
  Into the west away;
Past touch and sight and sound
Not further to be found,
How hopeless under ground
  Falls the remorseful day.

Composition:

    Set to music by Ian Venables (b. 1955), "How Clear, How Lovely Bright", op. 43 no. 2 (2012), published 2012 [ baritone, string quartet, piano ], from Songs of the Severn, no. 2

Text Authorship:

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Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

This text was added to the website: 2008-12-13
Line count: 21
Word count: 102