by William Henry Davies (1871 - 1940)
Raptures
Language: English
Sing for the sun your lyric, lark, Of twice ten thousand notes; Sing for the moon, you nightingales, Whose light shall kiss your throats; Sing, sparrows, for the soft warm rain, To wet your feathers through; And when a rainbow's in the sky, Sing you, cuckoo -- Cuckoo ! Sing for your five blue eggs, fond thrush, By many a leaf concealed; You starlings, wrens, and blackbirds, sing In ever wood and field: While I, who fail to give my love Long raptures twice as fine, Will for her beauty breathe this one -- A sigh, that's more divine.
Text Authorship:
- by William Henry Davies (1871 - 1940), "Raptures", appears in Forty New Poems, first published 1918 [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 Rosalie Housman (1890? - 1949), "Raptures", 1931. [voice and piano] [text not verified]
Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]
This text was added to the website: 2009-01-15
Line count: 16
Word count: 97