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by Rudyard Kipling (1865 - 1936)

Harp Song of the Dane Women
Language: English 
What is a woman that you forsake her,
And the hearth-fire and the home-acre.
To go with the old grey Widow-maker?

She has no house to lay a guest in
But one chill bed for all to rest in,
That the pale suns and the stray bergs nest in.

She has no strong white arms to fold you,
But the ten-times-fingering weed to hold you
Out on the rocks where the tide has rolled you.

Yet, when the signs of summer thicken,
And the ice breaks, and the birch-buds quicken,
Yearly you turn from our side, and sicken- -

Sicken again for the shouts and the slaughters.
You steal away to the lapping waters,
And look at your ship in her winter-quarters.

You forget our mirth, and talk at the tables,
The kine in the shed and the horse in the stables
To pitch her sides and go over her cables.

Then you drive out where the storm-clouds swallow,
And the sound of your oar-blades, falling hollow,
Is all we have left through the months to follow.

Ah, what is Woman that you forsake her,
And the hearth-fire and the home-acre,
To go with the old grey Widow-maker?

Text Authorship:

  • by Rudyard Kipling (1865 - 1936), "Harp Song of the Dane Women", appears in Puck of Pook's Hill, first published 1906 [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 Elizabeth Maconchy (1907 - 1994), "Harp Song of the Dane Women", 1927. [voice and harp] [
     text not verified 
    ]
  • by Betty Roe (b. 1930), "Harp Song of the Dane Women", published 1993. [soprano and piano] [
     text verified 1 time
    ]

Researcher for this page: Iain Sneddon [Guest Editor]

This text was added to the website: 2009-10-15
Line count: 24
Word count: 197

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