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by Celia Laighton Thaxter (1835 - 1894)

A bird upon the rosy bough
Language: English 
A bird upon a rosy bough
sang low and long, sang late and loud,
Until the young moon's silver prow
Had sunk behind a bar of cloud.
The south wind paused and held its breath,
Sing loud and late, sing low and long
While sweet as love and sad as death,
The matchless notes rose wide and strong.
They rang with rapture, loss and change,
Sing low and late, sing long and loud,
A tumult passionate and strange,
A speechless grief, a patience proud:
Till with farewell forevermore,
Sing late and loud, sing low and long,
Like waves that kiss a barren shore,
In sobbing cadence died the song.

Text Authorship:

  • by Celia Laighton Thaxter (1835 - 1894) [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 John Knowles Paine (1839 - 1906), "A bird upon the rosy bough", op. 40 (Four Songs) no. 1, published 1884 [ voice and piano ], A. P. Schmidt and Co., Boston [sung text checked 1 time]

Researcher for this page: Andrew Schneider [Guest Editor]

This text was added to the website: 2011-12-26
Line count: 16
Word count: 109

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