by Kevin John William Crossley-Holland (b. 1941)
A bookworm
Language: English
A moth devoured words. When I heard of that wonder It struck me as a strange event That a worm should swallow the song of some man. A thief gorge in the darkness on a great man's Speech of distinction. But the thievish stranger Was not a whit the wiser for swallowing words. And the answer: A Bookworm.
Text Authorship:
- by Kevin John William Crossley-Holland (b. 1941), after the Old English of The Exeter Book. [author's text not yet checked 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 Arthur Edward Drummond Bliss, Sir (1891 - 1975), "A bookworm", subtitle: "Hommage modeste à Maurice Ravel", published 1964, first performed 1963 [ baritone and instrumental ensemble ], from A knot of riddles, no. 5 [sung text checked 1 time]
Researcher for this page: Ted Perry
This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 7
Word count: 58