by Edith Sitwell (1887 - 1964)
A man from a far country
Language: English
Rose and Alice, Oh, the pretty lassies, With their mouths like a calice And their hair a golden palace- Through my heart like a lovely wind they blow. Though I am black and not comely, Though I am black as the darkest trees, I have swarms of gold that will fly like honey-bees, By the rivers of the sun I will feed my words Until they skip like those fleeced lambs The waterfalls, and the rivers (horned rams), Then for all my darkness I shall be The peacefulness of a lovely tree- A tree wherein the golden birds Are singing in the darkest branches, oh!
Text Authorship:
- by Edith Sitwell (1887 - 1964), appears in Façade, first published 1922 [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 William Walton (1902 - 1983), "A man from a far country", from Façade [sung text checked 1 time]
Researcher for this page: Dan Eggleston
This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 19
Word count: 105