The scribe (Mare, set by I. Gurney, H. Howells) (The Lied and Art Song Texts Page: Texts and Translations to Lieder, mélodies, canzoni, and other classical vocal music)


 What lovely things
   Thy hand hath made,
 The smooth-plumed bird
   In its emerald shade,
 The seed of the grass,
   The speck of stone
 Which the wayfaring ant
  Stirs - and hastes on!

 Though I should sit
 By some tarn [in thy hills]¹,
 Using its ink
 As the spirit wills
 To write of Earth's wonders,
 Its live, willed things,
 Flit would the ages
 On soundless wings
 Ere unto Z²
 My pen drew nigh;
 Leviathan told,
 And the honey-fly;
 And still would remain
 My wit to try -
 My worn reeds broken,
 The [dark]¹ tarn dry,
 All words forgotten -
 Thou, Lord, and I.

View text without footnotes
¹ omitted by Howells.
² pronounced zed

Authorship

Walter de la Mare (1873-1956)

Motley and Other Poems

Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive)

Ivor Gurney (1890-1937)

Herbert Norman Howells (1892-1983)

Added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.

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