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by John Masefield (1878 - 1967)

The wild duck
Language: English 
Twilight. Red in the West.
Dimness. A glow on the wood.
The teams plod home to rest.
The wild duck come to glean.
O souls not understood,
What a wild cry in the pool;
What things have the farm ducks seen
That they cry so--huddle and cry?
Only the soul that goes.
Eager. Eager. Flying.
Over the globe of the moon,
Over the wood that glows.
Wings linked. Necks a-strain,
A rush and a wild crying.

A cry of the long pain
In the reeds of a steel lagoon,
In a land that no man knows.

First published as "Coming into Salcombe" in Broad Sheet, December 1903

Text Authorship:

  • by John Masefield (1878 - 1967), "The wild duck", appears in Ballads and Poems, first published 1910 [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 Cecil Forsyth (1870 - 1941), "The wild duck", published <<1940 [sung text not yet checked]

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

This text was added to the website: 2008-12-30
Line count: 17
Word count: 96

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