by Francis Ledwidge (1891 - 1917)
Desire in Spring
Language: English
I love the cradle-songs the mothers sing In lonely places when the twilight drops, The slow, endearing melodies that bring Sleep to the weeping lids; and, when she stops, I love the roadside birds upon the tops Of dusty hedges in a world of Spring. And when the sunny rain drips from the edge Of mid-day wind, and meadows lean one way, And a long whisper passes thro' the sedge, Beside the broken water let me stay, While these old airs upon my memory play, And silent changes colour up the hedge.
Authorship:
- by Francis Ledwidge (1891 - 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 Richard Bruce Faith (b. 1926), "Desire in Spring" [sung text not yet checked]
- by Ivor (Bertie) Gurney (1890 - 1937), "Desire in Spring", subtitle: "Twilight Song", 1918-1919, published 1920, in The Chapbook [sung text checked 1 time]
- by John Theodore Livingston Raynor (1909 - 1970), "Desire in Spring", op. 576 (1960) [sung text not yet checked]
Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):
- GER German (Deutsch) (Sharon Krebs) (Maria M. Schnepp) , "Frühlingssehnsucht", copyright © 2014, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
- SPA Spanish (Español) (José Miguel Llata) , "Deseo en primavera", copyright © 2013, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
Researcher for this page: Ted Perry
This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 12
Word count: 92