Étude réaliste (Swinburne, set by E. Freer) (The Lied and Art Song Texts Page: Texts and Translations to Lieder, mélodies, canzoni, and other classical vocal music)


I.

A Baby's feet, like sea-shells pink,
   Might tempt, should heaven see meet,
An angel's lips to kiss, we think,
   A baby's feet.

Like rose-hued sea-flowers toward the heat
   They stretch and spread and wink
Their ten soft buds that part and meet.

No flower-bells that expand and shrink
   Gleam half so heavenly sweet
As shine on life's untrodden brink
   A baby's feet.

II.

A baby's hands, like rosebuds furled
   Whence yet no leaf expands,
Ope if you touch, though close upcurled,
   A baby's hands.

Then, fast as warriors grip their brands
   When battle's bolt is hurled,
They close, clenched hard like tightening bands.

No rosebuds yet by dawn impearled
   Match, even in loveliest lands,
The sweetest flowers in all the world -
   A baby's hands.

III.

A baby's eyes, ere speech begin,
   Ere lips learn words or sighs,
Bless all things bright enough to win
   A baby's eyes.

Love, while the sweet thing laughs and lies,
   And sleep flows out and in,
Sees perfect in them Paradise.

Their glance might cast out pain and sin,
   Their speech make dumb the wise,
By mute glad godhead felt within
   A baby's eyes.

Authorship

Algernon Charles Swinburne (1837-1909)

A Century of Roundels

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

Eleanor Everest Freer (1864-1942)

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

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