Raptures (Davies, set by R. Housman) (The Lied and Art Song Texts Page: Texts and Translations to Lieder, mélodies, canzoni, and other classical vocal music)


Sing for the sun your lyric, lark,
    Of twice ten thousand notes; 
Sing for the moon, you nightingales,
    Whose light shall kiss your throats; 
Sing, sparrows, for the soft warm rain,
    To wet your feathers through; 
And when a rainbow's in the sky,
    Sing you, cuckoo -- Cuckoo !

Sing for your five blue eggs, fond thrush,
    By many a leaf concealed; 
You starlings, wrens, and blackbirds, sing
    In ever wood and field: 
While I, who fail to give my love
    Long raptures twice as fine, 
Will for her beauty breathe this one --
    A sigh, that's more divine.

Authorship

William Henry Davies (1871-1940)

Forty 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)

Rosalie Housman (1890?-1949)

Date added to the website: 2009-01-15.

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