Daisy and Lily, Lazy and silly, Walk by the shore of the wan grassy sea,- Talking once more 'neath a swan- bosomed tree. Rose castles Tourelles Those bustles Where swells Each foam-bell of ermine They roam and determine What fashions have been and what fashions will be,- What tartan leaves born, What Crinolines worn. By Queen Thetis, Pelisses Of tarlatine blue, Like the thin Plaided leaves that the Castle crags grew, Or velours d'Afrande: On the water-god's land Her hair seemed gold trees on the honey-cell sand When the thickest gold spangles, on deep water seen, Were like twanging guitar and like cold mandoline, And the nymphs of great caves, With hair like gold waves, Of Venus, wore tarlatiine Louise and Charlottine (Borea's daughters) And the nymphs of deep waters, The nymph Taglioni, Grisi the ondine Wear Plaided Victoria and thin Clementine Like the crinolined waterfalls; Wood-nymphs wear bonnets, shawls, Elegant parasols Floating are seen. The Amazones wear balzarine of jonquille Besides the blond lace of a deep- falling rill; Through glades like a nun They run from and shun The enormous and gold-rayed rustling sun; And the nymphs of the fountains Descend from the mountains Like elegant willows On their deep barouche pillows, In cashmere Alvandar, barege Isabelle Like bells of bright water from clearest wood-well. Our elegantes favouring bonnets of blond, The stars in their apiaries, Sylphs in their aviaries, Seeing them, spangle these, and the sylphs fond From their aviaries fanned With each long fluid hand The manteaux espagnoles, Mimic the waterfalls Over the long and the light summer land. ... So Daisy and Lily, Lazy and silly Walk by the shore of the wan grassy Sea, Talking once more 'neath a swan- bosomed tree. Row Castles, Tourelles, Those bustles! Mourelles Of their shade in their train follow. Ladies, how vain, - hollow, - Gone is the sweet swallow, - Gone, Philomel!"
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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), "Valse", 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: 82
Word count: 311