Sudden light

         I have been here before,
              But when or how I cannot tell:
          I know the grass beyond the door,
              The sweet keen smell,
    The sighing sound, the lights around the shore.

          You have been mine before, --
              How long ago I may not know:
          But just when at that swallow's soar
              Your neck turned so,
    Some veil did fall, -- I knew it all of yore.

          Has this been thus before?
              And shall not thus time's eddying flight
          Still with our lives our love restore
              In death's despite,
    And day and night yield one delight once more?

         Then, now, -- perchance again! . . . .
              O round mine eyes your tresses shake!
          Shall we not lie as we have lain
              Thus for Love's sake,
    And sleep, and wake, yet never break the chain?

by Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1828-1882) , "Sudden light", 1853/4, from Poems. A New Edition, published 1881

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

by Florence Newell Barbour (1867-1946) , "Sudden light", published 1919. [voice and piano]
by George John Bennett (1863-1930) , "Sudden light", published 1886 [voice and piano], from Twelve Songs
by Walter H. Golde (1887-1963) , "Sudden light", 1921. [voice and piano]
by John Hall (1943-) , "Sudden light", 1974, first performed 1974 [high voice and piano], from Three Poems of Dante Gabriel Rossetti
by Raymond Hanson (1913-1976) , "Fallen veils", 1938. [mezzosoprano and piano]
by Julius Allan Greenway Harrison (1885-1963) , "Sudden light", published 1920. [voice and piano]
by Michael Head (1900-1976) , "Fallen veils", published 1939 [tenor or baritone and piano], from Five Songs
by Charles Martin Tornov Loeffler (1861-1935) , "Sudden light", op. 15 (Four Poems) no. 1, published 1906. [voice and piano]
by Andrew John Massey (1946-) , "Sudden light", 1970. [soprano or tenor solo, violoncello, and flute]
by Clara Kathleen Rogers (1844-1931) , "Sudden light", published 1900. [voice and piano]
by Rudolph Werther (1896-?) , "Sudden light", 1945-70. [voice and piano]

Date added to the website: 2007-09-27.

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