John Lodge Ellerton: Six Canzonets (The Lied and Art Song Texts Page: Texts and Translations to Lieder, mélodies, canzoni, and other classical vocal music)


There be none of Beauty's daughters
  With a magic like thee;
And like music on the waters
  Is thy sweet voice to me:
When, as if its sound were causing
The charmèd ocean's pausing,
The waves lie still and gleaming,
And the lull'd winds seem dreaming:

And the midnight moon is weaving
  Her bright chain o'er the deep;
Whose breast is gently heaving
  As an infant's asleep:
So the spirit bows before thee,
To listen and adore thee;
With a full but soft emotion,
Like the swell of Summer's ocean.

?. They name thee before me

Language: English

Authorship

George Gordon Noel Byron, Lord Byron (1788-1824)

Poems

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[ ... ]

They name thee before me,
    A knell to mine ear; 
A shudder comes o'er me --
    Why wert thou so dear? 
They know not I knew thee,
    Who knew thee too well:-- 
Long, long shall I rue thee,
    Too deeply to tell.

[ ... ]

?. In vain my lyre would lightly breathe

Language: English

Authorship

George Gordon Noel Byron, Lord Byron (1788-1824)

Childe Harold's Pilgrimage

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[ ... ]

In vain my lyre would lightly breathe!
  The smile that sorrow fain would wear
But mocks the woe that lurks beneath
  Like roses, roses o'er a sepulchre.
Though gay companions o'er the bowl
  Dispel awhile the sense of ill:
Though pleasure fires the madd'ning soul,
  The heart -- the heart is lonely still!

On many a lone and lovely night
  It sooth'd to gaze upon the sky;
For then I deem'd the heavenly light
  Shone sweetly on thy pensive eye:
And oft I thought at Cynthia's noon,
  When sailing o'er the Ægean wave,
"Now Thyrza gazes on that moon " ---
  Alas, it gleam'd upon her grave !

[ ... ]

View text without footnotes
¹ Clarke-Whitfeld: "this"
² Clarke-Whitfeld: "it meets"
³ Clarke-Whitfeld: "for"