LiederNet logo

CONTENTS

×
  • Home | Introduction
  • Composers (20,111)
  • Text Authors (19,486)
  • Go to a Random Text
  • What’s New
  • A Small Tour
  • FAQ & Links
  • Donors
  • DONATE

UTILITIES

  • Search Everything
  • Search by Surname
  • Search by Title or First Line
  • Search by Year
  • Search by Collection

CREDITS

  • Emily Ezust
  • Contributors (1,114)
  • Contact Information
  • Bibliography

  • Copyright Statement
  • Privacy Policy

Follow us on Facebook

by Anne Hunter (1742 - 1821)

A Ballad of the Eighteenth Century
Language: English 
'Twas at the time the moon's broad shield
Shines 'mid the vaulted skies,
While trembling round, [her]1 regal state,
The starry myriads rise.
Her pale beams silver'd o'er the gate
Where sculptur'd Frenzy glares,
And moping Melancholy scowls
Upon a world of cares.

From the dark cells, where horror reigns
And dire distraction bides,
A hapless maniac burst her chains,
And through the portal glides.
Loose were her robes, and on her breast
Chill dropp'd the midnight dew;
She felt it not: cold blew the [blast]2;
The winds unheeded blew.

Thro' lighted halls of gay resort,
Thro' trim domestic bands,
She pass'd resistless, and at once
Before the banquet stands.
O most unlook'd-for at that board,
And most unwelcome guest;
Cold is for thee the marble heart,
That robb'd thee of thy rest.

And do you weep? I cannot weep!
Frown not, nor look unkind;
That gentle pity sheds her balm
To sooth my troubled mind.
But stop! Methinks yon distant bell
Now warns me to attend
Where the last gleam of parting hope
Marks out a kinder friend.

View original text (without footnotes)
1 another edition of Abrams has "in"
2 another edition of Abrams has "winds"

Text Authorship:

  • by Anne Hunter (1742 - 1821) [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 Harriet Abrams (1760 - 1825), "A Ballad of the Eighteenth Century", published 1803 [ voice and piano ], London : Lavenu & Mitchell [sung text checked 1 time]

Researcher for this page: Johann Winkler

This text was added to the website: 2023-10-06
Line count: 32
Word count: 181

Gentle Reminder

This website began in 1995 as a personal project by Emily Ezust, who has been working on it full-time without a salary since 2008. Our research has never had any government or institutional funding, so if you found the information here useful, please consider making a donation. Your help is greatly appreciated!
–Emily Ezust, Founder

Donate

We use cookies for internal analytics and to earn much-needed advertising revenue. (Did you know you can help support us by turning off ad-blockers?) To learn more, see our Privacy Policy. To learn how to opt out of cookies, please visit this site.

I acknowledge the use of cookies

Contact
Copyright
Privacy

Copyright © 2025 The LiederNet Archive

Site redesign by Shawn Thuris