by George Mackay Brown (1921 - 1996)
Roads
Language: English
The road t o the bum Is pails, gossips, gray linen. The road to the shore I s salt and tar. We call the track to the peats The kestrel road. The road t o the kirk Is a road of silences. Ploughmen's feet Have beaten a road to the lamp and barrel. And the road from the shop Is loaves, sugar, paraffin, newspapers, gossip. Tinkers and shepherds Have the whole round hill for a road.
Text Authorship:
- by George Mackay Brown (1921 - 1996), "Roads" [author's text not yet checked 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 Peter Maxwell Davies (1934 - 2016), "Roads" [ chorus ], from The Kestrel Road, no. 2 [sung text not yet checked]
- by Claire Liddell (b. 1937), "Roads", 1975 [ soprano and piano ], from Five Orkney Scenes, no. 5, Roberton Publications [sung text not yet checked]
Researcher for this page: Joost van der Linden [Guest Editor]
This text was added to the website: 2026-05-03
Line count: 14
Word count: 76