by John Frederick Freeman (1880 - 1929)
Last hours
Language: English
A gray day and quiet, With slow clouds that pass, And in dull air a cloud that hangs, hangs All day. The naked and stiff branches Of oak, elm, thorn, In the cold light are like men aged and Forlorn. Only a gray sky, Grass, trees, grass again, And all the air a cloud that drips, drips, All day. Lovelier now the last hours of slow winter Slowly pass.
Authorship:
- by John Frederick Freeman (1880 - 1929), "Last hours", appears in Poems New and Old, first published 1920 [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 Ivor (Bertie) Gurney (1890 - 1937), "Last hours", 1919, published 1938 [ voice and piano ], from A Second Volume of Ten Songs, no. 8, London: Oxford University Press [sung text checked 1 time]
- by Maurice Jacobson (1896 - 1976), "Last hours", published 1922 [ voice and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]
This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 14
Word count: 69