The clock of the years (Hardy, set by G. Finzi) (The Lied and Art Song Texts Page: Texts and Translations to Lieder, mélodies, canzoni, and other classical vocal music)


    And the Spirit said,
 "I can make the clock of the years go backward,
 But am loth to stop it where you will."
    And I cried, "Agreed
    To that. Proceed:
    It's better than dead!"

    He answered, "Peace;"
 And called her up - as last before me;
 Then younger, younger she grew, to the year
    I first had known
    Her woman-grown,
    And I cried, "Cease! -

    "Thus far is good -
 It is enough - let her stay thus always!"
 But alas for me - He shook his head:
    No stop was there;
    And she waned child-fair,
    And to babyhood.

    Still less in mien
 To my great sorrow became she slowly,
 And smalled till she was nought at all
    In his checkless griff;
    And it was as if
    She had never been.

    "Better", I plained,
 "She were dead as before! The memory of her
 Had lived in me; but it cannot now!"
    And coldly his voice:
    "It was your choice
    To mar the ordained."

Authorship

Thomas Hardy (1840-1928)

Moments of Vision and Miscellaneous Verses

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

Gerald Finzi (1901-1956)

Earth and Air and Rain

Added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.

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