The Player Queen (Yeats, set by J. Carpenter) (The Lied and Art Song Texts Page: Texts and Translations to Lieder, mélodies, canzoni, and other classical vocal music)


My mother dandled me and sang,
"How young it is, how young!"
And made a golden cradle
That on a willow swung.
  
"He went away," my mother sang,	
"When I was brought to bed,"
And all the while her needle pulled
The gold and silver thread.
  
She pulled the thread and bit the thread
And made a golden gown,	
And wept because she had dreamt that I
Was born to wear a crown.
  
"When she was got," my mother sang,
"I heard a sea-mew cry,
And saw a flake of the yellow foam
That dropped upon my thigh."
  
How therefore could she help but braid
The gold into my hair,
And dream that I should carry
The golden top of care?

First published in Poetry, Chicago, May 1914, revised 1916

Authorship

William Butler Yeats (1865-1939)

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

John Alden Carpenter (1876-1951)

Date added to the website: 2009-01-20.

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