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


"Ahoy, and ahoy!'
'Twixt mocking and merry --
'Ahoy and ahoy, there,
Young man of the ferry!'

She stood on the steps
In the watery gloom ---
That Changeling --'Ahoy, there!'
She called him to come.
He came on the green wave,
He came on the grey,
Where stooped that sweet lady
That still summer's day.
He fell in a dream
Of her beautiful face,
As she sat on the thwart
And smiled in her place.

No echo his oar woke,
Float silent did they,
Past low-grazing cattle
In the sweet of the hay.
And still in a dream
At her beauty sat he,
Drifting stern foremost
Down -- down to the sea.

Come you, then: call,
When the twilight apace
Brings shadow to brood
On the loveliest face;
You shall hear o'er the water
Ring faint in the grey ---
'Ahoy, and ahoy, there!'
And tremble away;
'Ahoy, and ahoy!...'
And tremble away.

Authorship

Walter de la Mare (1873-1956)

Peacock Pie: A Book of Rhymes

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

Cecil Armstrong Gibbs (1889-1960)

In a Dream's Beguiling

Date added to the website: 2008-01-13.

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