From East to West (Swinburne, set by C. Stanford) (The Lied and Art Song Texts Page: Texts and Translations to Lieder, mélodies, canzoni, and other classical vocal music)


  Sunset smiles on sunrise: east and west are one,
  Face to face in heaven before the sovereign sun.
From the springs of the dawn everlasting a glory renews and
 transfigures the west,
From the depths of the sunset a light as of morning enkindles the
 broad sea's breast,
And the lands and the skies and the waters are glad of the day's
 and the night's work done.

  Child of dawn, and regent on the world-wide sea,
  England smiles on Europe, fair as dawn and free.
Not the waters that gird her are purer, nor mightier the winds that
 her waters know.
But America, daughter and sister of England, is praised of them,
 far as they flow:
Atlantic responds to Pacific the praise of her days that have been
 and shall be.

  So from England westward let the watchword fly,
  So for England eastward let the seas reply;
Praise, honour, and love everlasting be sent on the wind's wings,
 westward and east,
That the pride of the past and the pride of the future may mingle
 as friends at feast,
And the sons of the lords of the world-wide seas be one till the
 world's life die.

First published in Daily Chronicle, January 1893

Authorship

Algernon Charles Swinburne (1837-1909)

Astrophel 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)

Sir Charles Villiers Stanford (1852-1924)

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

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