>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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