The ride (Chapin, set by H. Shelley) (The Lied and Art Song Texts Page: Texts and Translations to Lieder, mélodies, canzoni, and other classical vocal music)


Gallop, and gallop, and gallop away!
The strong sun streams on the road today,
The wind is fresh, and the air has a thrill,
And we gallop away to the crest of the hill,
And plunge in the valley that's dappled in gray,
And gallop, and gallop, and gallop away!

We catch but a glimpse, then are past, are past.
The river gleams blue as we follow it fast
The scent of the pines to the wind gives zest,
As it roars in our faces on the cold hill's crest;
The dwellings of men in the hollows massed,
We see them like dreams, and are past, and are past.
Gallop, and gallop, and gallop away!

The wind grows wild and the weather is gray;
The clouds are low all over the sky,
And the plains resound to the wild bird's cry,
And fierce strange voices all join to say 
"Ho! gallop, and gallop and gallop, gallop away!"

Comedown in your saddle and sit to the leap!
The rugged moors like an ocean sweep,
The hedges and rocks rise high before,
And afar roams the sea on its lonely shore:
And around us the pale mists icily creep,
Quick! down in your saddle, and up to the leap!
Now gallop, and gallop and gallop away!

To think or consider we may not stay,
The jumps are hard and the way is rough,
But the joy of the race (and is that not enough?)
Is on us, is on us is on us today,
Look, see, through the trees, the sea far away!
Gallop away to the yearning sea!

Oho! how it laughs in its hungry glee
Oh! the wonderful, desolate, skeleton shore!
So sit to each jump that looms before,
For the gray waves are hungry for you and me.
Come gallop away to the waiting sea
Away away to the waiting sea.

Authorship

Anna Alice Chapin (1880-1920)

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

Harry Rowe Shelley (1858-1947)

Added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.

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