The Lamplighter | My tea is nearly ready and the sun has left the sky

The Lamplighter

Language: English

Our translations: ITA

My tea is nearly ready and the sun has left the sky;
It's time to take the window to see Leerie going by;
For every night at teatime and before you take your seat,
With lantern and with ladder he comes posting up the street.

Now Tom would be a driver and Maria go to sea,
And my papa's a banker and as rich as he can be;
But I, when I am stronger and can choose what I'm to do,
O Leerie, I'll go round at night and light the lamps with you!

For we are very lucky, with a lamp before the door,
And Leerie stops to light it as he lights so many more;
And O! before you hurry by with ladder and with light,
O Leerie, see a little child and nod to him tonight.

Text Authorship:

by Robert Louis Stevenson (1850 - 1894), "The Lamplighter", appears in A Child's Garden of Verses, first published 1885 [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 Ethel Crowningshield , "The Lamplighter", published 1910 [ voice and piano ], from Robert Louis Stevenson Songs [sung text not yet checked]
by Henry John Edwards (1854 - 1933), "The Lamplighter", published 1913 [ SATB chorus a cappella ] [sung text not yet checked]
by Sven Lekberg (1899 - 1984), "The Lamplighter", published 1959 [ SATB chorus a cappella ] [sung text not yet checked]
by Daniel Gregory Mason (1873 - 1953), "The Lamplighter", published <<1940 [ voice and piano ], from Five Children's Songs [sung text not yet checked]
by Roger Quilter (1877 - 1953), "The Lamplighter", op. 5 no. 2, published 1914 [ voice and piano ], from Four Child Songs, no. 2, Chappell [sung text checked 1 time]
by John Theodore Livingston Raynor (1909 - 1970), "The Lamplighter", op. 98 (1946) [ voice and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
by Alec Rowley (1892 - 1958), "The Lamplighter", published <<1967 [ unison chorus and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
by Thomas Griffen (Griffin?) Shepard (1848 - 1905), "The Lamplighter", published 1901 [ voice and piano ], from A cycle of songs [sung text not yet checked]
by Eleanor Smith , "The Lamplighter", published <<1940 [ voice and piano ], from Song Pictures [sung text not yet checked]
by Ronald Stevenson (b. 1928), "The Lamplighter", 1961 [ medium voice and piano ], from Four Robert Louis Stevenson Songs [sung text not yet checked]
by John Brown Russell Whitfield , "The Lamplighter", published 1958 [ unison chorus and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
by Malcolm Benjamin Graham Christopher Williamson (1931 - 2003), "The Lamplighter", published 1968 [ high voice and piano ], from From a child's garden, no. 10 [sung text checked 1 time]
by Mabel Nightingale Woodward (1876 - 1911), "The Lamplighter", published 1912 [ voice and piano ], from Songs, no. 3, Birmingham : Press of the Birmingham Printers [sung text not yet checked]

Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):

Researcher for this page: Ted Perry

This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 12
Word count: 139