To outer senses there is peace,
A dreamy peace on either hand,
Deep silence in the shadowy land,
Deep silence where the shadows cease.

Save for a cry that echoes shrill
From some lone bird disconsolate;
A corncrake calling to its mate;
The answer from the misty hill.

And suddenly the moon withdraws
Her sickle from the [lightening]1 skies,
And to her sombre cavern flies,
Wrapped in a veil of yellow gauze.

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View original text (without footnotes)

Confirmed with Oscar Wilde, Poems, Boston: Robert Brothers, 1881.

¹ Griffes: "light'ning"

Text Authorship:

• by Oscar Wilde (1854 - 1900), "La Fuite de la Lune" [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 Eileen Belchamber , "La Fuite de la Lune", 1939 [ women's chorus ] [sung text not yet checked]
• by Eduard de Boer (b. 1957), as Alexander Comitas, "La Fuite de la Lune", op. 11 no. 11a (1983) [ mixed chorus a cappella ], from Dawn, no. 1 [sung text not yet checked]
• by Richard James Brooks (b. 1942), "La Fuite de la Lune", 2009, first performed 2009 [ high voice and piano ], from Impressions, no. 2 [sung text not yet checked]
• by Carl Deis (1883 - 1960), "La Fuite de la Lune", 1914 [ voice and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
• by Charles Tomlinson Griffes (1884 - 1920), "La Fuite de la Lune", op. 3 (Tone-Images) no. 1, A. 31 (1912), published 1915 [sung text checked 1 time]
• by Harold Vincent Jervis-Read (1883 - 1945), "The Moon" [ voice and piano ], from Four Impressions, no. 3, Ascherberg & Co. [sung text not yet checked]
• by Michael Linton , "La Fuite de la Lune", 2016-2017 [ bass-baritone and piano ], from Wilde songs, no. 3 [sung text not yet checked]
• by David Morris (b. 1964), "La Fuite de la Lune", 2002 [ mezzo-soprano, piano, violin ad libitum ], from Impressions, no. 2 [sung text not yet checked]
• by Gordon Balch Nevin (1892 - 1943), "The Flight of the Moon", published 1936 [ 2 sopranos and alto ], Gamble Hinged Music Co., Chicago [sung text not yet checked]
• by Nicolas Slonimsky (1894 - 1995), "La Fuite de la Lune", published 1927 [ soprano and piano ], from Impressions, 2 songs for soprano and piano, no. 2, White-Smith Music Publishing Co., New York [sung text not yet checked]
• by Audrey Snyder (b. 1953), "The Flight of the Moon", published 2007 [ mixed chorus and piano ad libitum ] [sung text not yet checked]

Settings in other languages, adaptations, or excerpts:

• Also set in German (Deutsch), a translation by Anonymous/Unidentified Artist ; composed by Arie Gijsbert Schuyer.
  • Go to the text.
    
• Also set in Russian (Русский), a translation by P. Potomkin ; composed by Borys Mykolayovych Lyatoshynsky.
  • Go to the text. [Note: the text is not in the database yet.]
    
• Also set in Ukrainian (Українська), a translation by Grigory Porfirovich Kochur (1908 - 1994) , copyright © ; composed by Borys Mykolayovych Lyatoshynsky.
  • Go to the text.
    

Research team for this page: Emily Ezust [Administrator] , Barbara Miller

This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 12
Word count: 73