Meadow-Larks (Coolbrith, set by A. Beach) (The Lied and Art Song Texts Page: Texts and Translations to Lieder, mélodies, canzoni, and other classical vocal music)


Sweet, sweet, sweet! 
O happy that I am!
(Listen to the meadow-larks,
across the fields that sing!)
Sweet, sweet, sweet!
O subtle breath of balm,
O winds that blow,
O buds that grow,
O rapture of the spring!
Sweet, sweet, sweet!
O skies serene and blue,
That shut the radiant pastures in,
that fold the mountain's crest!
Sweet, sweet, sweet!
What of the clouds ye knew?
The vessels ride a golden tide
Upon a sea at rest.
Sweet, sweet, sweet! 
Who prates of care and pain?
Who says that life is sorrowful?
O life, so glad, so fleet!
Ah! he who leads the noblest life
Finds life the noblest gain,
The tears of pain a tender rain
To make its waters sweet.
Sweet, sweet, sweet! 
O happy world that is!
Dear heart! I hear across the fields
my mateling pipe and call.
Sweet, sweet, sweet! 
O world so full of bliss,
O world so full of bliss!
For life is love, the world is love,
And love is over all,
For life is love, the world is love,
And love is over all!

Authorship

Ina Donna Coolbrith (1842-1928)

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

Amy Marcy Cheney Beach (1867-1944)

Three Songs

Added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.

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