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by William Watson, Sir (1858 - 1935)

The Ballad of Semmerwater
Language: English 
Deep asleep, deep asleep,
Deep asleep it lies,
The still lake of Semmerwater
Under the still skies.

And many a fathom, many a fathom,
Many a fathom below,
In a king's tower and a queen's bower
The fishes come and go.

Once there stood by Semmerwater
A mickle town and tall;
King's tower and queen's bower
And the wakeman on the wall.

Came a beggar halt and sore:
"I faint for lack of bread!"
King's tower and queen's bower
Cast him forth unfed.

He knock'd at the door of the eller's cot,
The eller's cot in the dale.
They gave him of their oatcake,
They gave him of their ale.

He has cursed aloud that city proud,
He has cursed it in its pride;
He has cursed it into Semmerwater
Down the brant hillside;
He has cursed it into Semmerwater
There to bide.

King's tower and queen's bower,
And a mickle town and tall;
By glimmer of scale and gleam of fin,
Folk have seen them all.

King's tower and queen's bower,
And weed and reed in the gloom;
And a lost city in Semmerweater,
Deep asleep till Doom.

Text Authorship:

  • by William Watson, Sir (1858 - 1935), "The Ballad of Semmerwater", appears in The Poems of William Watson, first published 1905 [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 Cecil Armstrong Gibbs (1889 - 1960), "The Ballad of Semmerwater", 1930, published 1930. [voice and piano] [
     text verified 1 time
    ]
  • by Harold Noble (1903 - 1998), "The Ballad of Semmerwater", 1956. [medium voice and piano] [
     text not verified 
    ]
  • by (Gerald) Graham Peel (1878 - 1937), "The Ballad of Semmerwater", published <<1940. [voice and piano] [
     text not verified 
    ]

Researcher for this page: Ted Perry

This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 34
Word count: 189

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