In years defaced (Hardy, set by G. Finzi, R. Buckle) (The Lied and Art Song Texts Page: Texts and Translations to Lieder, mélodies, canzoni, and other classical vocal music)


In years defaced and lost, 
Two sat here, transport-tossed,
Lit by a living love
The wilted world knew nothing of:

Scared momently
By gain-givings,
Then hoping things
That could not be.

Of love and us no trace
Abides upon the place;
The sun and shadows wheel,
Season and season sereward steal:

Foul days and fair
Here, too, prevail,
And gust and gale
As everywhere...

But lonely shepherd souls
Who bask amid these knolls
May catch a faery sound
On sleepy noon-tides from the ground:

"O not again
Till Earth outwears
Shall love like theirs
Suffuse this glen!"

Authorship

Thomas Hardy (1840-1928)

Poems of the Past and Present

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

Roy Buckle (1926-)

Gerald Finzi (1901-1956)

Till Earth Outwears

Added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.

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