by Alfred Edward Housman (1859 - 1936)
Along the field as we came by
Language: English
Along the field as we came by A year ago, my love and I, The aspen over stile and stone Was talking to itself alone. "Oh who are these that kiss and pass? A country lover and his lass; Two lovers looking to be wed; And time shall put them both to bed, But she shall lie with earth above, And he beside another love." And sure enough beneath the tree There walks another love with me, And overhead the aspen heaves Its rainy-sounding silver leaves; And I spell nothing in their stir, But now perhaps they speak to her, And plain for her to understand They talk about a time at hand When I shall sleep with clover clad, And she beside another lad.
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Authorship:
- by Alfred Edward Housman (1859 - 1936), no title, appears in A Shropshire Lad, no. 26, first published 1896 [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 Ivor (Bertie) Gurney (1890 - 1937), "The aspens", 1918-1920, published 1926 [ baritone, string quartet, and piano ], from The Western Playland, no. 5 [sung text checked 1 time]
- by Wendell Keeney , "The aspen", published 1940 [ voice and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
- by Charles Wilfred Orr (1893 - 1976), "Along the field", 1927, published 1934 [ baritone and piano ], from Seven Songs from "A Shropshire Lad", no. 1 [sung text checked 1 time]
- by John Theodore Livingston Raynor (1909 - 1970), "The Aspen", op. 130 (1947) [ voice and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
- by Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872 - 1958), "Along the field", 1927, published 1954, rev. 1954 [ voice and violin ], from Along the Field, no. 1 [sung text checked 1 time]
- by John Ramsden Williamson (1929 - 2015), "Along the fields as we came by" [ baritone and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
Researcher for this page: Ted Perry
This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 20
Word count: 125