'Are you far away?' 'Yea, I am far — far; Where the green wave shelves to the sand, And the rainbows are; And an ageless sun beats fierce From an empty sky: There, O thou Shadow forlorn, Is the wraith of thee, I.' 'Are you happy, most Lone?' 'Happy, forsooth! Who am eyes of the air; voice of the foam; Ah, happy in truth. My hair is astream, this cheek Glistens like silver, and see, As the gold to the dross, the ghost in the mirk, I am calling to thee.' 'Nay, I am bound. And your cry faints out in my mind. Peace not on earth have I found, Yet to earth am resigned. Cease thy shrill mockery, Voice, Nor answer again.' 'O Master, thick cloud shuts thee out And cold tempests of rain.'
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Confirmed with Walter De la Mare, The Veil and other Poems, New York, Henry Holt and Company, 1922, pages 61-62.
Authorship:
- by Walter De la Mare (1873 - 1956), "The familiar", appears in The Veil and Other Poems, first published 1921 [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 Edgar Martin Deale (1902 - 1999), "The familiar", 1945 [ SSATB chorus and orchestra ], from Walter de la Mare Suite [sung text not yet checked]
Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]
This text was added to the website: 2021-02-23
Line count: 24
Word count: 135