Phlebas the Phoenician, a fortnight...

Phlebas the Phoenician, a fortnight dead,
Forgot the cry of gulls, and the deep seas swell
And the profit and loss.
                          A current under sea
Picked his bones in whispers. As he rose and fell
He passed the stages of his age and youth
Entering the whirlpool.
                          Gentile or Jew
O you who turn the wheel and look to windward,
Consider Phlebas, who was once handsome and tall as you.

by T. S. (Thomas Stearns) Eliot (1888-1965) , no title, from "The Waste Land", part 4, first published in Criterion, October 1922

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

by Sydney Burkinshaw (1911-) , "Phlebas" [baritone and piano]
by Jani Christou (1926-) , "Death by Water", 1955, orchestrated 1957 [mezzo-soprano and piano], from Six T.S.Eliot songs for mezzo-soprano and piano, no. 3, also set in German
by Donald MacInnis , "The Waste Land", 1957.

ITA Italian (Ferdinando Albeggiani)

Date added to the website: 2008-08-26.

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Sheet music:

  Search sheetmusicplus.com for Death by Water, The Waste Land, Phlebas, Art song , Lieder, chansons, or works for solo voice
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Books:

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