by Thomas Lovell Beddoes (1803 - 1849)
Old Adam, the carrion crow
Language: English
Old Adam, the carrion crow, The old crow of Cairo; He sat in the shower, and let it flow Under his tail and over his crest; And through every feather Leaked the wet weather; And the bough swung under his nest; For his beak it was heavy with marrow. Is that the wind dying? O no: It's only two devils, that blow Through a murderer's bones, to and fro, In the ghosts' moonshine. Ho! Eve, my grey carrion wife, When we have supped on the kings' marrow, Where shall we drink and make merry our life? Our nest it is queen Cleopatra's skull, 'Tis cloven and cracked, And battered and hacked, But with tears of blue eyes it is full: Let us drink then, my raven of Cairo. Is that the wind dying? O no: It's only two devils, that blow Through a murderer's bones, to and fro, In the ghosts' moonshine.
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Authorship
- by Thomas Lovell Beddoes (1803 - 1849), no title, appears in Death's Jest Book or The Fool's Tragedy, first published 1850 [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 Denis ApIvor (1916 - 2004), "The carrion crow", 1940. [high voice and piano] [text not verified]
- by Keith Warren Bissell (b. 1912), "Old Adam, the carrion crow", published 1962 [SATB chorus a cappella], Waterloo : Waterloo [text not verified]
- by Stephen Dodgson (b. 1924), "The old crow of Cairo", first performed 1957 [high voice and piano], from Three Songs to Words by T. L. Beddoes [text not verified]
- by Roger Elwyn Fiske (b. 1910), "Old Adam, the carrion crow", published 1952 [vocal duet with piano], London : Oxford University Press [text not verified]
- by Brian Holmes (b. 1946), "Old Adam, the Carrion Crow" [high voice, string quartet], from Death's Jest-Book, no. 3. [text verified 1 time]
- by Leslie Walters (1902 - 1998), "Old Adam, the carrion crow", 1937, first performed 1952. [baritone or tenor and piano] [text not verified]
Researcher for this text: Brian Holmes
This text was added to the website: 2004-03-26
Line count: 24
Word count: 152