Bab-Lock-Hythe (Binyon, set by M. Shaw) (The Lied and Art Song Texts Page: Texts and Translations to Lieder, mélodies, canzoni, and other classical vocal music)


In the time of wild roses 
As up Thames we travelled 
Where 'mid water-weeds ravelled 
The lily uncloses, 

To his old shores the river 
A new song was singing, 
And young shoots were springing 
On old roots for ever. 

Dog-daisies were dancing, 
And flags flamed in cluster, 
On the dark stream a lustre 
Now blurred and now glancing. 

A tall reed down-weighing, 
The sedge-warbler fluttered ; 
One sweet note he uttered, 
Then left it soft-swaying. 

By the bank's sandy hollow 
My dipt oars went beating, 
And past our bows fleeting 
Blue-backed shone the swallow. 

High woods, heron-haunted, 
Rose, changed, as we rounded 
Old hills greenly mounded, 
To meadows enchanted. 

A dream ever moulded 
Afresh for our wonder, 
Still opening asunder 
For the stream many-folded ; 

Till sunset was rimming 
The West with pale flushes; 
Behind the black rushes 
The last light was dimming; 

And the lonely stream, hiding 
Shy birds, grew more lonely, 
And with us was only 
The noise of our gliding. 

In cloud of gray weather 
The evening o'erdarkened, 
In the stillness we hearkened ; 
Our hearts sang together.

Authorship

Laurence Binyon (1869-1943)

England and Other Poems

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

Martin Edward Fallas Shaw (1875-1958)

Date added to the website: 2009-01-16.

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