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by George Meredith (1828 - 1909)

Dirge in woods
Language: English 
A wind sways the pines,
   And below
Not a breath of wild air;
Still as the mosses that glow
On the flooring and over the lines
Of the roots here and there.
The pine-tree drops its dead;
They are quiet, as under the sea.
Overhead, overhead
Rushes life in a race,
As the clouds the clouds chase;
   And we go,
And we drop like the fruits of the tree,
   Even we,
   Even so.

First published in Fortnightly Review, August 1870

Text Authorship:

  • by George Meredith (1828 - 1909), "Dirge in woods" [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 Ina Boyle (1889 - 1967), "Dirge in woods", 1952-4 [ mezzo-soprano and piano ], from Two Songs of the Wood, no. 1 [sung text not yet checked]
  • by Aaron Copland (1900 - 1990), "Dirge in woods", 1954 [ voice and piano ] [sung text checked 1 time]
  • by John William Duarte (b. 1919), "Dirge in woods", published 1971 [ high voice and guitar ], from Five Quiet Songs [sung text not yet checked]
  • by George Heussenstamm (b. 1926), "Dirge in woods", published 1971 [ TTBB chorus a cappella ] [sung text not yet checked]
  • by Robert William Jones (1932 - 1997), "Dirge in woods" [ high voice and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
  • by Charles Hubert Hastings Parry, Sir (1848 - 1918), "Dirge in woods", 1904-6, published 1907 [ voice and piano ], from English Lyrics, Eighth Set, no. 4 [sung text checked 1 time]
  • by (William Herbert) Mervyn Roberts (1906 - 1990), "Dirge in woods", <<1972 [ satb chorus a cappella ] [sung text checked 1 time]
  • by David Vaughan Thomas (1873 - 1934), "Dirge in woods", published c1924 [ voice and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
  • by Ernest Walker (1870 - 1949), "Dirge in woods", published 1939 [ satb chorus a cappella ] [sung text checked 1 time]

Settings in other languages, adaptations, or excerpts:

  • Also set in German (Deutsch), a translation by Anonymous/Unidentified Artist , ; composed by Lise Maria Mayer.
    • Go to the text. [Note: the text is not in the database yet.]

Researcher for this page: Ted Perry

This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 15
Word count: 73

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