When I set out for Lyonnesse,
   A hundred miles away,
   The rime was on the spray,
 And starlight lit my lonesomeness
 When I set out for Lyonnesse
   A hundred miles away.

 What would bechance at Lyonnesse
   While I should sojourn there
   No prophet durst declare,
 Nor did the wisest wizard guess
 What would bechance at Lyonnesse
   While I should sojourn there.

 When I came back from Lyonnesse
   With magic in my eyes,
   [None managed to surmise
 What meant my godlike gloriousness]1,
 When I came back from Lyonnesse
   With magic in my eyes!

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View original text (without footnotes)
¹ There seem to be two versions of this poem. Finzi and the other version: "All marked with mute surmise / My radiance rare and fathomless" ; Gibbs mixes them: "All marked with mute surmise / What meant my godlike gloriousness"

Authorship

• by Thomas Hardy (1840 - 1928), "When I set out for Lyonnesse", appears in Satires of Circumstance, Lyrics and Reveries with Miscellaneous Pieces, first published 1914 [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 Frederic Austin (1872 - 1952), "When I set out for Lyonnesse", published 1927 [ baritone and piano ], from Three Wessex Songs [sung text not yet checked]
• by Rutland Boughton (1878 - 1960), "A Song of Lyonnesse", published 1924 [ voice and orchestra or piano ], from Three Hardy Songs [sung text not yet checked]
• by James Burton (b. 1974), "When I set out for Lyonnesse" [ voice and piano ], confirmed with a concert programme booklet [sung text checked 1 time]
• by John Woods Duke (1899 - 1984), "When I set out for Lyonnesse", published 1953 [ voice and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
• by Gerald Finzi (1901 - 1956), "When I set out for Lyonnesse", op. 15 no. 2, published 1936 [ baritone, piano ], from Earth and Air and Rain, no. 2 [sung text checked 1 time]
• by Cecil Armstrong Gibbs (1889 - 1960), "Lyonnesse", published 1921 [ voice, piano ] [sung text checked 1 time]
• by Sidney Harrison (b. 1903), "When I set out for Lyonnesse", published 1929 [ voice, piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
• by Fritz Bennicke Hart (1874 - 1949), "When I set out for Lyonnesse", op. 120 (Five songs) (1938) [ voice and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
• by Irwin Heilner (b. 1908), "When I set out for Lyonnesse", 1966 [sung text not yet checked]
• by Christopher Kaye Le Fleming (b. 1908), "When I set out for Lyonnesse", published 1963 [ soprano, tenor, satb chorus, orchestra ], from Six Country Songs [sung text not yet checked]
• by Tom M. McCourt , "When I set out for Lyonnesse", published 1937 [ 2-part chorus of treble voices, piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
• by Katharine E. O'Brien , "When I set out for Lyonnesse", published 1947 [sung text not yet checked]
• by Charles A. Speyer , "When I set out for Lyonnesse", published 1920 [ voice, piano ], from Six Selected Lyrics [sung text not yet checked]
• by Leslie Walters (1902 - 1998), "When I set out for Lyonnesse", published 1957 [sung text not yet checked]

Researcher for this text: Ted Perry

This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 18
Word count: 93