On Dante's Track (Swinburne, set by L. Smith) (The Lied and Art Song Texts Page: Texts and Translations to Lieder, mélodies, canzoni, and other classical vocal music)


On Dante's track by some funereal spell
Drawn down through desperate ways that lead not back
We seem to move, bound forth past flood and fell
   On Dante's track.

The grey path ends:  the gaunt rocks gape:  the black
Deep hollow tortuous night, a soundless shell,
Glares darkness:  are the fires of old grown slack?

Nay, then, what flames are these that leap and swell
As 'twere to show, where earth's foundations crack,
The secrets of the sepulchres of hell
   On Dante's track?

Authorship

Algernon Charles Swinburne (1837-1909)

A Century of Roundels

In Guernsey

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

Leo Smith (1881-1952)

Date added to the website: 2009-01-27.

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