At Day‑Close in November

The ten hours' light is abating,
And a late bird wings across,
Where the pines, like waltzers waiting,
Give their black heads a toss.

Beech leaves, that yellow the noon-time,
Float past like specks in the eye;
I set every tree in my June time,
And now they obscure the sky.

And the children who ramble through here
Conceive that there never has been
A time when no tall trees grew here,
That none will in time be seen.

by Thomas Hardy (1840-1928) , "At Day-Close in November", from Satires of Circumstance, Lyrics and Reveries with Miscellaneous Pieces, published 1914

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

by (Edward) Benjamin Britten (1913-1976) , "At day-close in November", op. 52 no. 1 (1953), published 1954 [high voice and piano], from Winter words, no. 1.
by Arnold Atkinson Cooke (1906-2005) , "At Day-Close in November" [baritone, piano], from Country Songs

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