The dancer (Waller, set by N. Rorem) (The Lied and Art Song Texts Page: Texts and Translations to Lieder, mélodies, canzoni, and other classical vocal music)


 Behold the brand of beauty tossed!
 See how the motion does dilate the flame!
 Delighted love his spoils does boast,
 And triumph in this game.
 Fire, to no place confined,
 Is both our wonder and our fear;
 Moving the mind,
 As lightning hurled through the air.

 High heaven the glory does increase
 Of all her shining lamps, this artful way;
 The sun, in figures such as these,
 Joys with the moon to play;
 To the sweet strains they advance,
 Which do result from their own spheres,
 As this nymph's dance
 Moves with the numbers which she hears.

Authorship

Edmund Waller (1608-1687)

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

Ned Rorem (1923-)

The Nantucket Songs

Added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.

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