He clasps the crag with crooked hands;
Close to the sun in lonely lands,
Ring'd with the azure world, he stands.
The wrinkled sea beneath him crawls;
He watches from his mountain walls,
And like a thunderbolt he falls.
Text Authorship:
Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive):
- by Carl Reinhold Busch (1862 - 1943), "The eagle", published <<1940 [ voice and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
- by Nicolas Flagello (b. 1928), "The eagle", published 1964 [ bass-baritone and chamber orchestra ], from The Land [sung text not yet checked]
- by George Alfred Grant-Schaefer (1872 - 1939), "The eagle", published 1909 [ voice and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
- by Ivor (Bertie) Gurney (1890 - 1937), "The eagle", 1919 [ voice and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
- by Jacob Heymann , "The eagle", published <<1940 [ voice and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
- by Gordon Percival Septimus Jacob (1895 - 1984), "The eagle", published 1963 [ unison SS chorus and piano ], from The Cheerful Birds [sung text not yet checked]
- by Edward Alexander MacDowell (1860 - 1908), "The eagle", 1888, published 1894, from Four Little Poems [sung text not yet checked]
- by Peter Russell Naylor (b. 1933), "The eagle", 1970 [ tenor or baritone and piano ], from Bird Songs [sung text not yet checked]
- by Seneca Pierce , "The eagle", published <<1940 [ voice and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
- by James Walter Wilson (b. 1922), "The eagle", 1966, first performed 1967 [ mezzo-soprano and piano ], from Three Birds [sung text not yet checked]
Settings in other languages, adaptations, or excerpts:
Other available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):
- GER German (Deutsch) (Linda Godry) , "Der Seeadler", copyright © 2008, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [
Administrator]
This text was added to the website: 2008-01-09
Line count: 6
Word count: 39
Er umklammert das Kliff mit Klauenhänden;
Der Sonne nah in seinem einsamen Reich,
umgeben von einer azurnen Aureole, ragt er auf.
Die gekräuselte See tief unter ihm brodelt;
Er späht hinunter von den steilen Wänden,
und schießt hinab gleich eines Blitzes Strahl.
