The Penny Whistle (Thomas, set by I. Gurney) (The Lied and Art Song Texts Page: Texts and Translations to Lieder, mélodies, canzoni, and other classical vocal music)


 The new moon hangs like an ivory bugle
 In the naked frosty blue;
 And the leaves of the forest, already blackened
 By Winter, are blackened anew.

 The brooks that cut up and increase the forest,
 As if they had never known
 The sun, are roaring with black hollow voices
 Betwixt rage and a moan.

 But still the caravan-hut by the hollies
 Like a kingfisher gleams between:
 Round the mossed old hearths of the charcoal-burners
 First primroses ask to be seen.

 The charcoal-burners are black, but their linen
 Blows white on the line:
 And white the letter the girl is reading
 Under that crescent fine;

 And her brother hidden apart in a thicket,
 Slowly and surely playing
 On a whistle an olden nursery melody,
 Says far more than I am saying.

Input by David Kenneth Smith

Authorship

Edward Thomas (1878-1917)

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)

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Added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.

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