Lyn
I'm afraid that the only references I can find to these lines are marked Anonymous.
Roger
----- Original Message -----
From: "Lyn Moir" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Monday, October 01, 2007 2:10 PM
Subject: A poem and Samuel Barber
Can anyone help me here? I was sent the following by a musicologist friend who is just about
'the' expert on Samuel Barber. I'm clueless. Nothing springs to mind.
Lyn
Samuel Barber wrote a song to the following text some time in the late thirties, early forties,
I believe (based on the paper he used). I have tried and tried and tried to track down the
poet. Any idea who might have written this??
Who carries corn and crown,
Come from the seaside down,
Destroyer of my town
And in the halls of wheat
Hear his serpent feet
Like feathers in the heat.
Along my vein and bone
His arrowhead of stone
draws the lost blood toward home
Who makes my heart his room
Is silent when I come
Like angels in a tomb.
His head of love,
His hands of lace
Unwinds my final hiding place.
He was always interested in Gaelic poetry and in the early 'thirties wrote a few
sketches on texts from Tom Moore's Irish Songster, containing all the Songs, Ballads, and
National Airs, and Melodies (New York: Philip J. Cozanz, 1960) : "The Valley Lay Smiling," p.
150 (The Song of O'Ruark, the Prince of Breffni): The valley lay smiling before me, / Where
lately I left her behind. And "Weep On (Air: The Song of Sorrow)," p. 129: Weep on, weep on,
your hour is past, / Your dreams of pride are o'er. Do you suppose this is from that
collection?
I would be eternally grateful if you could tell me who might have written it. I'm sure it's
either British, Irish, or Scottish.
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