by John Addington Symonds (1840 - 1893)
The winds behind me in the thicket sigh
Language: English
The winds behind me in the thicket sigh, The bees fly droning on laborious wing, Pink cloudlets scarcely float across the sky, September stillness broods o’er ev’rything. Deep peace is in my soul: I seem to hear Catullus murmuring ‘Let us live and love; Suns rise and set and fill the rolling year Which bears us deathward, therefore let us love; Pour forth the wine of kisses, let them flow, And let us drink our fill before we die.’ Hush! in the thicket still the breezes blow; Pink cloudlets sail across the [azure] sky; The bees warp lazily on laden wing; Beauty and stillness brood o’er ev’rything.
About the headline (FAQ)
Confirmed with John Addington Symonds, New and Old: A Volume of Verse, 1880, in which it is titled "On the Hillside". The poem was first published in the private pamphlet Crocuses and Soldanellas, 1870.
Authorship:
- by John Addington Symonds (1840 - 1893), title 1: "Love in Dreams", title 2: "On the Hillside", title 3: "Two Moods of the Mind", title 4: "To One in Heaven", appears in New and Old, in Lyrics of Life and Art, first published 1870 [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 Ian Venables (b. 1955), "At Malvern", op. 24 (1998), first performed 1999 [ voice and piano ] [sung text checked 1 time]
Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]
This text was added to the website: 2023-02-05
Line count: 14
Word count: 107