When Sir Beelzebub (Sitwell, set by W. Walton) (The Lied and Art Song Texts Page: Texts and Translations to Lieder, mélodies, canzoni, and other classical vocal music)


When
Sir
Beelzebub called for his syllabub
in the hotel in Hell
Where Proserpine first fell,
Blue as the gendarmerie were the
waves of the sea,
(Rocking and shocking the bar-maid)
Nobody comes to give him his rum
but the
Rim of the sky hippopotamus-glum
Enhances the chances to bless with
a benison
Alfred Lord Tennyson crossing the
bar laid
With cold vegetation from pale
deputations
Of temperance workers
(all signed in Memoriam)
Hoping with glory to trip up the
Laureate's feet,
(Moving in classical metres)...
Like Balaclava, the lava came down
from the Roof, and the sea's blue
wooden gendarmerie
Took them in charge while
Beelzebub roared for his rum.
...None of them come!

Input by Dan Eggleston

Authorship

Edith Sitwell (1887-1964)

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

William Walton (1902-1983)

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Added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.

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