by William Brighty Rands (1823 - 1882)
The Dream of a Girl who Lived at...
Language: English
Seven sweet singing birds up in a tree; Seven swift sailing-ships white upon the sea; Seven bright weather-cocks shining in the sun; Seven slim race-horses ready for a run; Seven gold butterflies, flitting overhead; Seven red roses blowing in a garden bed; Seven white lilies, with honey bees inside them; Seven round rainbows with clouds to divide them; Seven pretty little girls with sugar on their lips; Seven witty little boys, whom everybody tips; Seven nice fathers, to call little maids joys; Seven nice mothers, to kiss the little boys; Seven nights running I dreamt it all plain; With bread and jam for supper I could dream it all again!
Confirmed with Lilliput Levee: Poems of Childhood, Child-Fancy, and Child-Like Moods, London: Alexander Strahan, 1867, page 163. The author's name does not appear anywhere in this book. Note: This poem does not appear in the 1864 edition of Lilliput Levee.
Text Authorship:
- by William Brighty Rands (1823 - 1882), "The Dream of a Girl Who Lived at Seven-Oaks", appears in Lilliput Levee, London, Alexander Strahan, first published 1867 [author's text checked 1 time 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 György Ligeti (1923 - 2006), "The Dream of a Girl who Lived at Sevenoaks", 1988-1993, from Nonsense Madrigals, no. 1 [sung text checked 1 time]
Research team for this page: Emily Ezust [Administrator] , Poom Andrew Pipatjarasgit [Guest Editor]
This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 14
Word count: 110