by Alfred Edward Housman (1859 - 1936)
Her strong enchantments failing
Language: English
Her strong enchantments failing, Her towers of fear in wreck, Her limbecks dried of poisons And the knife at her neck, The Queen of air and darkness Begins to shrill and cry, "O young man, O my slayer, To-morrow you shall die." O Queen of air and darkness, I think 'tis truth you say, And I shall die tomorrow; But you will die to-day.
About the headline (FAQ)
Text Authorship:
- by Alfred Edward Housman (1859 - 1936), no title, appears in Last Poems, no. 3, first published 1922 [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 Elaine Hugh-Jones (b. 1927), "The Queen of air and darkness" [ voice and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
- by Nick Peros (b. 1963), "Her strong enchantments failing" [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: 12
Word count: 64