To the children (Blackwood, set by E. Elgar) (The Lied and Art Song Texts Page: Texts and Translations to Lieder, mélodies, canzoni, and other classical vocal music)


O children, open your arms to me,
Let your hair fall over my eyes;
Let me sleep a moment - and then awake
In your [Gardens]¹ of sweet Surprise!
For the grown up folk 
Are a wearisome folk,
And they laugh all my fancies to scorn,
[My fun and my fancies to scorn]²

O children, open your hearts to me,
And tell me your wonder-thoughts.
Who lives in the palace inside your brain?
Who plays in its outer courts?
Who hides in the hours To-morrow holds?
Who sleeps in your Yesterdays?
Who tiptoes along past the curtained folds
Of the shadow that Twilight lays?

O children, open your eyes to me,
And tell me your visions too;
Who squeezes the sponge when the salt tears flow
To dim their magical blue?
[Who draws up the blinds when the sun peeps in?
Who fastens them down at night?]³
Who brushes the fringe of their lace-veined lids?
Who trims their innocent light?

[Then, children, I beg you, sing]⁴ low to me,
And cover my eyes with your hands.
O kiss me again till I sleep and dream
That I'm lost in your Fairylands;
For the grown up folk
Are a troublesome folk,
And the book of their childhood is torn!
Is blotted, and crumpled, and torn!

View text without footnotes
¹ Elgar: "Garden"
² Elgar: "They laugh all my fancies to scorn"
³ Elgar has moved these to the end of the stanza.
⁴ Elgar: "O children, I pray you speak"

Authorship

Algernon Blackwood (1869-1951)

A Prisoner in Fairyland

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

Sir Edward Elgar (1857-1934)

The Starlight Express

Added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.

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