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by Robert Louis Stevenson (1850 - 1894)

Swallows travel to and fro
Language: English 
Swallows travel to and fro,
And the great winds come and go,
And the steady breezes blow,
Bearing perfume, bearing love.
Breezes hasten, swallows fly,
Towered clouds forever ply,
And at noonday, you and I
See the same sunshine above.

Dew and rain fall everywhere,
Harvests ripen, flowers are fair,
And the whole round earth is bare
To the moonshine and the sun;
And the live air, fanned with wings,
Bright with breeze and sunshine, brings
Into contact distant things,
And makes all the countries one.

Let us wander where we will,
Something kindred greets us still;
Something seen on vale or hill
Falls familiar on the heart;
So, at scent or sound or sight,
Severed souls by day and night
Tremble with the same delight -
Tremble, half the world apart.

About the headline (FAQ)

Text Authorship:

  • by Robert Louis Stevenson (1850 - 1894), no title, from Poems by Robert Louis Stevenson: Hitherto Unpublished, Volume I, first published 1916 [author's text checked 1 time against a primary source]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 Roger Nixon (1921 - 2009), "Swallows", published 1963. [SATB chorus a cappella] [
     text not verified 
    ]
  • by Humphrey Procter-Gregg (1895 - 1980), "Half the world apart" [voice and piano] [
     text not verified 
    ]

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

This text was added to the website: 2008-12-08
Line count: 24
Word count: 131

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