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


It was the Great Alexander,
Capped with a golden helm,
Sate in the ages, in his floating ship,
    In a dead calm.

Voices of sea-maids singing
Wandered across the deep:
The sailors labouring on their oars
    Rowed as in sleep.

All the high pomp of Asia,
Charmed by that siren lay,
Out of their weary and dreaming minds
    Faded away.

Like a bold boy sate their Captain,
His glamour withered and gone,
In the souls of his brooding mariners,
    While the song pined on.

Time like a falling dew,
Life like the scene of a dream
Laid between slumber and slumber
    Only did seem. . . .

O Alexander, then,
In all us mortals too,
Wax not so overbold
    On the wave dark-blue!

Come the calm starry night,
Who then will hear
Aught save the singing
    Of the sea-maids clear?

Authorship

Walter de la Mare (1873-1956)

The Sunken Garden and Other Poems

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)

Date added to the website: 2008-01-07.

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