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by Thomas Hardy (1840 - 1928)

Transformations
Language: English 
Portions of this yew
Is a man my grandsire knew,
Bosomed here at its foot:
This branch may be his wife,
A ruddy human life
Now turned to a green shoot.

These grasses must be made
Of her who often prayed,
Last century, for repose;
And the fair girl long ago
Whom I often tried to know
May be entering this rose.

So, they are not underground,
But as nerves and veins abound
In the growths of upper air,
And they feel the sun and rain,
And the energy again
That made them what they were!

Text Authorship:

  • by Thomas Hardy (1840 - 1928), "Transformations", appears in Moments of Vision and Miscellaneous Verses, first published 1917 [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 Gerald Finzi (1901 - 1956), "Transformations", op. 14 no. 9, published 1933 [ tenor and piano ], from A Young Man's Exhortation, no. 9 [sung text checked 1 time]

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 18
Word count: 96

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