On the hill (Tennyson, set by A. Sullivan, S. Thomson) (The Lied and Art Song Texts Page: Texts and Translations to Lieder, mélodies, canzoni, and other classical vocal music)


The lights and shadows fly.
Yonder it brightens and darkens
down on the plain
A jewel, a jewel dear to lovers eye.
Oh is it the brook, or a pool,
or her window pane,
When the winds are up in the morning?

Clouds that are rising above,
O winds and lights and shadows
that cannot be still,
All running on one way to
the home of my love,
All running on,
And I stand in the slope of the hill
And the winds are up in the morning!

Follow, I follow the chase.
And my thoughts are as quick, are as quick running on, running on.
O Lights, are you flying over her sweet little face?
And my heart is there before you are come and gone,
And my heart is there before you are come and gone,
When the winds are up in the morning.

Follow them down the slope,
And I follow them down to the window pane of my dear.
Oh it brightens and darkens and brightens like my hope,
It darkens and brightens and darkens like my fear,
When the winds are up in the morning!
When the winds are up in the morning!

Authorship

Lord Alfred Tennyson (1809-1892)

The Windows, or The Loves of the Wrens

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

Sir Arthur Sullivan (1842-1900)

The Window, or The Songs of the Wrens

Sidney Thomson

The Window or the Song of the Wrens

Date added to the website: 2009-03-21.

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