Wonder (Traherne, set by G. Finzi) (The Lied and Art Song Texts Page: Texts and Translations to Lieder, mélodies, canzoni, and other classical vocal music)


 How like an angel I came down! 
 How bright are all things a here!  
 When first among his works I did appear
 O how their glory did me crown!
 The world resembled his eternity
 In which my soul did walk;
 And everything that I did see
 Did with me talk.

 The skies in their magnificence
 The lovely, lively air, 
 O how divine, how soft, how sweet, how fair!
 The stars did entertain my sense;
 And all the works of God so bright and pure,
 So rich and great, did seem,
 As if they ever must endue
 In my esteem.

 A native health and innocence
 Witihin my bones did grow,
 And while my God did all his glories show,
 I felt a vigour in my sense 
 That was all spirit:  within I did flow
 With seas of life, like wine:
 I nothing but the world did know
 But t'was Divine.

Input by Anne Ozorio

Authorship

Thomas Traherne (1637?-1674)

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

Gerald Finzi (1901-1956)

Dies Natalis

Added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.

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