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by Thomas Lovell Beddoes (1803 - 1849)

The mighty thought of an old world
Language: English 
The mighty [thought]1 of an old world
[Fans]2, like a dragon's wing unfurled,
   The surface of my yearnings deep;
And solemn shadows then awake,
Like [the]3 fish-lizard in the lake,
   Troubling a planet's morning sleep.

My waking is a Titan's dream,
Where a strange sun, long set, doth beam
   Through Montezuma's cypress bough:
Through the fern wilderness forlorn
Glisten the giant harts' great horn,
   And serpents vast with helmed brow.

The measureless from caverns rise
With steps of earthquake, thunderous cries,
   And graze upon the lofty wood;
The palmy grove, through which doth gleam
Such antediluvian ocean's stream,
   Haunts shadowy my domestic mood.

Available sung texts:   ← What is this?

•   L. Berkeley 

About the headline (FAQ)

View original text (without footnotes)
Note: also titled in various publications as "Song of Thanatos" and "The Song of Thanatos" among others.
1 Berkeley: "thoughts"
2 Berkeley: "Fan"
3 Berkeley: "a"

Text Authorship:

  • by Thomas Lovell Beddoes (1803 - 1849), "Stanzas", appears in The Poems Posthumous and Collected of Thomas Lovell Beddoes, first published 1851 [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 Lennox Randal Francis Berkeley, Sir (1903 - 1989), "The mighty thoughts of an old world", op. 58 no. 1 (1962), published 1963 [high voice and piano], from Autumn's Legacy, no. 1. [
     text verified 1 time
    ]

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

This text was added to the website: 2008-06-14
Line count: 18
Word count: 107

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