Bessie Bobtail (Stephens, set by S. Barber, W. Mourant) (The Lied and Art Song Texts Page: Texts and Translations to Lieder, mélodies, canzoni, and other classical vocal music)


As down the road she wambled slow,
She had not got a place to go:
She had not got a place to fall
And rest herself - no place at all!
She stumped along, and wagged her pate;
And said a thing was deperate.

Her face was screwed and wrinkled tight
Just like a nut - and, left and right,
On either side, she wagged her head
And said a thing; and what she said
Was desperate as any word
That ever yet a person heard.

I walked behind her for a while,
And watched the people nudge and smile:
But ever, as she went, she said,
As left and right she swung her head,
"O God He knows: And, God He knows!
And, surely God Almighty knows!"

Authorship

James Stephens (1882-1950)

The Hill of Vision

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

Samuel Barber (1910-1981)

Three Songs

Walter Mourant (1910-)

Added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.

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