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by Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792 - 1822)

Orphan Hours, the Year is dead
Language: English 
Orphan Hours, the Year is dead,
Come and sigh, come and weep!
Merry Hours, smile instead,
For the Year is but asleep.
See, it smiles as it is sleeping, 
Mocking your untimely weeping.

As an earthquake rocks a corse
In its coffin in the clay,
So White Winter, that rough nurse,
Rocks the death-cold Year to-day;
Solemn Hours! wail aloud
For your mother in her shroud.

As the wild air stirs and sways
The tree-swung cradle of a child,
So the breath of these rude days 
Rocks the Year:--be calm and mild,
Trembling Hours, she will arise
With new love within her eyes.

January gray is here,
Like a sexton by her grave;
February bears the bier,
March with grief doth howl and rave,
And April weeps--but, O ye Hours!
Follow with May's fairest flowers.

About the headline (FAQ)

Text Authorship:

  • by Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792 - 1822), "Dirge for the Year", written 1821, appears in Posthumous Poems, first published 1824 [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 George Benjamin Arnold , "Orphan hours, the year is dead", published 1859 [sung text not yet checked]

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

  • CZE Czech (Čeština) (Jaroslav Vrchlický) , "Pohrobní zpěv starého roku", Prague, J. Otto, first published 1901


Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

This text was added to the website: 2005-01-27
Line count: 24
Word count: 135

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