Fish in the unruffled lakes Their swarming colours wear, Swans in the winter air A white perfection have, And the great lion walks Through his innocent grove; Lion, fish and swan Act, and are gone Upon Time's toppling wave. We, till shadowed days are done, We must weep and sing Duty's conscious wrong, The Devil in the clock, The goodness carefully worn For atonement or for luck; We must lose our loves, On each beast and bird that moves Turn an envious look. Sighs for folly done and said Twist our narrow days, But I must bless, I must praise That you, my swan, who have All gifts that to the swan Impulsive Nature gave, The majesty and pride, Last night should add Your voluntary love.
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First published in Listener, April 1936Text 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 (Edward) Benjamin Britten (1913 - 1976), "Fish in the unruffled lakes", 1938, published 1947 [ high voice and piano ], from Fish in the unruffled lakes : Six Auden Settings for High Voice and Piano, no. 4, note: collected into one publication in 1997 [sung text checked 1 time]
- by John Reginald Lang-Hyde (1899 - 1990), as Lewis Hyde, "Fish in the unruffled lakes", 1951 [ voice and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
Researcher for this page: Malcolm Wren [Guest Editor]
This text was added to the website: 2018-01-24
Line count: 27
Word count: 127