I heard a soldier (Trench, set by A. Bax) (The Lied and Art Song Texts Page: Texts and Translations to Lieder, mélodies, canzoni, and other classical vocal music)


I heard a soldier sing some trifle 
Out in the sun-dried veldt alone; 
He lay and cleaned his grimy rifle
Idly, behind a stone. 

"If after death, love, comes a waking, 
And in their camp so dark and still 
The men of dust hear bugles, breaking 
Their halt upon the hill, 

"To me the slow, the silver pealing 
That then the last high trumpet pours 
Shall softer than the dawn come stealing, 
For, with its call, comes yours!" 

What grief of love had he to stifle, 
Basking so idly by his stone, 
That grimy soldier with his rifle 
Out in the veldt, alone?

Authorship

(Frederic) Herbert Trench (1865-1923)

New Poems

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

Sir Arnold Edward Trevor Bax (1883-1953)

Date added to the website: 2008-12-31.

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