The gentle lady (Masefield, set by A. Shepherd, F. Swain) (The Lied and Art Song Texts Page: Texts and Translations to Lieder, mélodies, canzoni, and other classical vocal music)


So beautiful, so dainty-sweet,
So like a lyre's delightful touch --
A beauty perfect, ripe, complete
That art's own hand could only smutch
And nature's self not better much.

So beautiful, so purely wrought,
Like a fair missal penned with hymns,
So gentle, so surpassing thought --
A beauteous soul in lovely limbs,
A lantern that an angel trims.

So simple-sweet, without a sin,
Like gentle music gently timed,
Like rhyme-words coming aptly in,
To round a moonÃƒÂ©d poem rhymed
To tunes the laughing bells have chimed.

Authorship

John Masefield (1878-1967)

Ballads

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

Arthur Shepherd (1880-1958)

Freda Swain (1902-)

Date added to the website: 2008-12-30.

Gentle Reminder

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