by Walter De la Mare (1873 - 1956)
Lullaby
Language: English
Sleep, lovely white soul! The little mouse cheeps plaintively, The nightbird in the chestnut tree - They sing together, bird and mouse, In starlight, in darkness, lonely, sweet, The wild notes and the faint notes meet - Sleep, lovely white soul! Amid the lilies floats the moth; The mole along his galleries goeth In the dark earth; the summer moon Looks like a shepherd through the pane Seeking his feeble lamb again - Sleep, lovely white soul! Time comes to keep night-watch with thee, Nodding with roses; and the sea Saith 'Peace, peace!' amid his foam. 'O be still!' The wind cries up the whispering hill -
Text Authorship:
- by Walter De la Mare (1873 - 1956), "Lullaby", appears in Songs of Childhood, first published 1901 [author's text not yet checked against a primary source]
Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive):
- by Cecil Armstrong Gibbs (1889 - 1960), "Lullaby", 1923, published 1924, first performed 1923 [ voice and piano ] [sung text checked 1 time]
Researcher for this page: Ted Perry
This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 18
Word count: 103