by Alfred Edward Housman (1859 - 1936)
How clear, how lovely bright
Language: English
How clear, how lovely bright, How beautiful to sight Those beams of morning play; How heaven laughs out with glee Where, like a bird set free, Up from the eastern sea Soars the delightful day. To-day I shall be strong, No more shall yield to wrong, Shall squander life no more; Days lost, I know not how, I shall retrieve them now; Now I shall keep the vow I never kept before. Ensanguining the skies How heavily it dies Into the west away; Past touch and sight and sound Not further to be found, How hopeless under ground Falls the remorseful day.
About the headline (FAQ)
Text Authorship:
- by Alfred Edward Housman (1859 - 1936), no title, appears in More Poems, no. 16, first published 1936 [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 Ian Venables (b. 1955), "How Clear, How Lovely Bright", op. 43 no. 2 (2012), published 2012 [ baritone, string quartet, piano ], from Songs of the Severn, no. 2 [sung text checked 1 time]
- by John Ramsden Williamson (1929 - 2015), "How clear, how lovely bright " [ soprano and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
- by John Ramsden Williamson (1929 - 2015), "How clear, how lovely bright " [ SATB chorus a cappella ] [sung text not yet checked]
Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]
This text was added to the website: 2008-12-13
Line count: 21
Word count: 102