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by Anonymous / Unidentified Author

The Annunciation
Language: English 
The angel and the girl are met.
Earth was the only meeting place.
For the embodied never yet
Travelled beyond the shore of space.
The eternal spirits in freedom go.
See, they have come together, see, 
While the destroying minutes flow,
Each reflects the other's face
Till heaven in hers and earth in his 
Shine steady there. He's come to her 
From far beyond the farthest star, 
Feathered through time. Immediacy 
Of strangest strangeness is the bliss 
That from their limbs all movement takes.
Yet the increasing rapture brings
So great a wonder that it makes
Each feather tremble on his wings.
Outside the window footsteps fall
Into the ordinary day
And with the sun along the wall
Pursue their unreturning way.
Sound's perpetual roundabout
Rolls its numbered octaves out
And hoarsely grinds its battered tune.
But through the endless afternoon
These neither speak nor movement make, 
But stare into their deepening trance
As if their gaze would never break.

Text Authorship:

  • by Anonymous / Unidentified Author

Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive):

  • by Helena Paish (b. 2002), "The Annunciation" [ chorus ] [sung text not yet checked]

Researcher for this page: Joost van der Linden [Guest Editor]

This text was added to the website: 2025-12-13
Line count: 28
Word count: 160

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