Sorrow o' Mydath (Masefield, set by C. Alison-Crompton, M. Davidson, C. Griffes, P. Miles, R. Ward) (The Lied and Art Song Texts Page: Texts and Translations to Lieder, mélodies, canzoni, and other classical vocal music)


Weary the cry of the wind is, weary the sea,
Weary the heart and the mind and the body of me.
Would I were out of it, done with it, would I could be
A white gull crying along the desolate sands!

Outcast, derelict soul in a body accurst,
Standing drenched with the spindrift standing athirst,
For the cool green waves of death to arise and burst
In a tide of quiet for me on the desolate sands.

Would that the waves and the long white hair of the spray
Would gather in splendid terror and blot me away
To the sunless place of the wrecks where the waters sway
Gently, dreamily quietly over desolate sands!

First published in Speaker, February 1902

Authorship

John Masefield (1878-1967)

Salt Water Ballads

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

C. Alison-Crompton [pseudonym]

Malcolm Gordon Davidson (1891-1949)

Charles Tomlinson Griffes (1884-1920)

Two Poems by John Masefield

Philip Napier Miles (1865-1935)

Robert E. Ward (1917-)

Date added to the website: 2008-10-22.

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