LiederNet logo

CONTENTS

×
  • Home | Introduction
  • Composers (20,296)
  • Text Authors (19,842)
  • Go to a Random Text
  • What’s New
  • A Small Tour
  • FAQ & Links
  • Donors
  • DONATE

UTILITIES

  • Search Everything
  • Search by Surname
  • Search by Title or First Line
  • Search by Year
  • Search by Collection

CREDITS

  • Emily Ezust
  • Contributors (1,116)
  • Contact Information
  • Bibliography

  • Copyright Statement
  • Privacy Policy

Follow us on Facebook

by William Blake (1757 - 1827)

A little girl lost
 (Sung text for setting by W. Bolcom)
 Matches original text
Language: English 
   Children of the future Age 
   Reading this indignant page, 
   Know that in a former time 
   Love! sweet Love! was thought a crime. 

In the Age of Gold, 
Free from winter's cold, 
Youth and maiden bright 
To the holy light, 
Naked in the sunny beams delight. 

Once a youthful pair, 
Fill'd with softest care, 
Met in garden bright 
Where the holy light 
Had just remov'd the curtains of night. 

There, in rising day, 
On the grass they play; 
Parents were afar, 
Strangers came not near, 
And the maiden soon forgot her fear. 

Tired with kisses sweet, 
They agree to meet 
When the silent sleep 
Waves o'er heaven's deep, 
And the weary tired wanderers weep. 

To her father white 
Came the maiden bright; 
But his loving look, 
Like the holy book, 
All her tender limbs with terror shook. 

``Ona! pale and weak! 
To thy father speak: 
O, the trembling fear! 
O, the dismal care! 
That shakes the blossoms of my hoary hair.''

Composition:

    Set to music by William Bolcom (b. 1938), "A little girl lost", 1956-81 [ solo voices, chorus, orchestra ], from Songs of Experience, Volume Two, no. 8

Text Authorship:

  • by William Blake (1757 - 1827), "A little girl lost", appears in Songs of Innocence and Experience, in Songs of Experience, no. 23, first published 1794

See other settings of this text.


Researcher for this page: Ahmed E. Ismail

This text was added to the website: 2005-01-17
Line count: 34
Word count: 161

Gentle Reminder

This website began in 1995 as a personal project by Emily Ezust, who has been working on it full-time without a salary since 2008. Our research has never had any government or institutional funding, so if you found the information here useful, please consider making a donation. Your help is greatly appreciated!
–Emily Ezust, Founder

Donate

We use cookies for internal analytics and to earn much-needed advertising revenue. (Did you know you can help support us by turning off ad-blockers?) To learn more, see our Privacy Policy. To learn how to opt out of cookies, please visit this site.

I acknowledge the use of cookies

Contact
Copyright
Privacy

Copyright © 2025 The LiederNet Archive

Site redesign by Shawn Thuris