The wind is [rising]1 on the sea,
The windy white foam dancers leap;
And the sea moans uneasily,
And turns to sleep, and cannot sleep.

Ridge after [rocky]2 ridge uplifts wild hands,
And hammers at the land,
Scatters in liquid dust, and drifts
To death among the dusty sand.

On the horizon's nearing line,
Where the sky rests a visible wall,
Grey in the offing I divine
The sails that fly before a squall.

View original text (without footnotes)
¹ Becker: "missing" (?)
² omitted by Becker

Text Authorship:

• by Arthur Symons (1865 - 1945), "Before the squall", appears in Silhouettes, in At Dieppe, no. 4 [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 John Joseph Becker (1886 - 1961), "Before the squall", published 1959, from At Dieppe, no. 3 [ sung text checked 1 time]
• by Ethel Mary Smyth, Dame (1858 - 1944), "Before the squall", published 1913 [mezzo-soprano or baritone with piano], from Three Moods of the Sea = Drei Lieder vom Meere, no. 2, also set in German (Deutsch) [ sung text checked 1 time]

Settings in other languages, adaptations, or excerpts:

• Also set in German (Deutsch), a translation by Rudolf Stephan Hoffmann (1878 - 1931) ; composed by Ethel Mary Smyth, Dame.
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Researcher for this page: T. P. (Peter) Perrin

This text was added to the website: 2006-03-11
Line count: 12
Word count: 74