The Penguin Book of English Song
Richard Stokes
* * *
THE PENGUIN BOOK OF ENGLISH SONG
Seven Centuries of Poetry from Chaucer to Auden
Contents
Introduction
The Penguin Book of English Song*
GEOFFREY CHAUCER (c.1343–1400)
Merciles Beaute ∙ General Prologue
WILLIAM DUNBAR (?1456–?1513)
Rorate cœli desuper ∙ To the City of London
JOHN SKELTON (?1460–1529)
To maystres Margaret Hussey ∙ The Tunnyng of Elynour Rummynge per Skelton Laureat ∙ My praty Besse
SIR WALTER RALEGH (c.1552–1618)
On the life of man ∙ Euen such is tyme ∙ Sir Walter Ravleigh to his sonne
EDMUND SPENSER (1552–99)
From An Hymne of Heavenly Beavtie ∙ Sonnet VI (‘Be nought dismay’d’) ∙ Sonnet LXXVIII (‘Lackyng my loue I go from place to place’) ∙ Sonnet XIX (‘The merry Cuckow, messenger of Spring’)
SIR PHILIP SIDNEY (1554–86)
Sixt song (‘O you that heare this voice’) ∙ Ninth song (‘Goe my Flocke, goe get you hence’) ∙ Charita
ROBERT GREENE (1558–92)
Sephestias song to her childe
ST ROBERT SOUTHWELL (?1561–95)
New heaven, new warre ∙ New Prince, new pompe
CHRISTOPHER MARLOWE (1564–93)
The passionate Sheepheard to his love
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE (1564–1616)
Who is Siluia? ∙ When Dasies pied, and Violets blew ∙ When Isicles hang by the wall ∙ Tell me where is fancie bred ∙ Sigh no more, ladies ∙ Vnder the greene wood tree ∙ Blow, blow, thou winter winde ∙ It was a Louer, and his lasse ∙ How should I your true loue know ∙ To-morrow is S. Valentines day ∙ They bore him bare fac’d on the Beer ∙ She neuer told her loue ∙ O Mistris mine where are you roming? ∙ Come away, come away death ∙ When that I was and a little tine boy ∙ Glamys thou art, and Cawdor ∙ Come Thou Monarch of the Vine ∙ Hearke, hearke, the Larke at Heauens gate sings ∙ Fear no more the heate o’ the’ Sun ∙ When Daffadils begin to peere ∙ The Clowd-capt Towres ∙ Come vnto these yellow sands ∙ Full fadom fiue thy Father lies ∙ Where the Bee sucks, there suck I ∙ Sonnet 130 (‘My mistres eyes are nothing like the Sunne’) ∙ Sonnet 43 (‘When most I winke’)
THOMAS CAMPION (1567–1620)
I must complaine ∙ I care not for these Ladies ∙ The Sypres curten of the night ∙ Neuer weather-beaten Saile ∙ Come, O come my lifes delight
THOMAS DEKKER (?1570–1632)
The song (‘Golden slumbers kisse your eyes’) ∙ The song (‘Art thou poore yet hast thou golden Slumbers’) ∙ The first Three-man’s song ∙ The second Three-man’s song
JOHN DONNE (1572–1631)
The expiration ∙ A hymne to God the Father ∙ The message ∙ Oh my blacke Soule! ∙ Batter my heart, three person’d God ∙ O might those sighes and teares returne againe ∙ Oh, to vex me, contraryes meet in one ∙ What if this present were the worlds last night? ∙ Since she whom I lov’d hath payd her last debt ∙ At the round earths imagin’d corners ∙ Thou hast made me, and shall thy worke decay? ∙ Death be not proud ∙ We cannot bid the fruits ∙ In the wombe of the earth ∙ Nunc, lento sonitu
BEN JONSON (1572/3–1637)
Song. To Celia (‘Drinke to me, onely, with thine eyes’) ∙ Song. To Celia (‘Come my Celia, let us prove’) ∙ Epitaph on S[alomon] P[avy] ∙ Echo’s song (‘Slow, slow, fresh fount’) ∙ Doe but looke on her eyes ∙ Song (‘O, that ioy so soone should waste!’) ∙ Hymn to Diana (‘Queene and Huntresse, chaste, and faire’)
JOHN FLETCHER (1579–1625)
Take, oh take those lips away ∙ Song (‘Lay a garland on my hearse’) ∙ Song (‘Come sleepe, and with thy sweet deceiving’) ∙ Orpheus with his lute
ROBERT HERRICK (1591–1674)
Among the Mirtles, as I walkt ∙ To the Virgins, to make much of Time ∙ To Anthea, who may command him any thing ∙ The bracelet to Julia ∙ The maiden-blush ∙ To Daisies, not to shut so soone ∙ The Night-piece, to Julia ∙ Upon Julia’s haire fill’d with Dew ∙ Cherrie-Ripe ∙ To daffadills ∙ To Musique, to becalme his Fever ∙ To Violets ∙ The succession of the foure sweet months ∙ Upon Julia’s clothes ∙ To the Willow-tree ∙ To Musick, to becalme a sweet-sick-youth
FRANCIS QUARLES (1592–1644)
On our Saviour’s Passion ∙ Ev’n like two little bank-dividing brooks
GEORGE HERBERT (1593–1633)
The 23d Psalme ∙ Praise (II) ∙ The Elixir ∙ Easter ∙ Love (III) ∙ The call ∙ Antiphon (I)
EDMUND WALLER (1606–87)
The self-banish’d ∙ Go lovely Rose
JOHN MILTON (1608–74)
Psalm 136 ∙ L’Allegro ∙ Il Penseroso ∙ At a Solemn Musick ∙ Sonnet XVI (‘When I consider how my light is spent’) ∙ Sonnet VII (‘How soon hath Time’) ∙ Song. On May morning ∙ The Hymn
SIR JOHN SUCKLING (1609–41)
Song (‘Why so pale and wan?’) ∙ A poem, with the Answer. Sir J.S.
RICHARD LOVELACE (1618–58)
To Lucasta, Going to the Warres ∙ To Althea, from prison ∙ Gratiana dauncing and singing
ANDREW MARVELL (1621–78)
The Mower to the Glo-Worms ∙ Bermudas ∙ The fair singer
JOHN BUNYAN (1628–88)
Valiant-for-Truth’s song ∙ Whose Delectable Mountains are these?
JOHN DRYDEN (1631–1700)
Song of Venus ∙ Musick for a while ∙ I attempt from love’s sickness to fly ∙ On the death of Mr. Purcell ∙ Rondelay ∙ Alexander’s Feast ∙ A song for St CECILIA’s Day, November 22, 1687
THOMAS TRAHERNE (1637–74)
Will you see the Infancy of this sublime and celestial Greatness? ∙ Sweet Infancy! ∙ How like an Angel came I down! ∙ These little Limmes ∙ An Empty Book is like an Infants Soul ∙ All appeared New, and Strange at [the] first ∙ Rise noble soule and come away ∙ How desolate! ∙ You never Enjoy the World aright
JOHN WILMOT, EARL OF ROCHESTER (1647–80)
Upon Drinking in a Bowl ∙ A Song (‘My dear Mistress has a Heart’)
COLLEY CIBBER (1671–1757)
The blind boy
ISAAC WATTS (1674–1748)
Man frail, and God eternal ∙ Crucifixion to the world by the Cross of Christ
JOHN GAY (1685–1732)
O ruddier than the cherry! ∙ Were I laid on Greenland’s Coast
HENRY CAREY (?1687–1743)
Sally in our alley ∙ A loyal song
ALEXANDER POPE (1688–1744)
Where-e’er you walk ∙ How dark, O Lord, are thy decrees! ∙ The dying Christian to his soul, Ode
JAMES THOMSON (1700–1748)
An Ode (‘Rule, Britannia!’) ∙ Lines from The Seasons (‘Come, gentle Spring, ethereal mildness, come’)
CHRISTOPHER SMART (1722–71)
Rejoice in the Lamb
JOHN NEWTON (1725–1807)
Zion, or the City of God
WILLIAM COWPER (1731–1800)
Light shining out of darkness ∙ Walking with God
ANNE HUNTER (1742–1821)
Song (‘O Tuneful voice’) ∙ The spirit’s song ∙ A mermaid’s song ∙ Song (‘The season comes when first we met’) ∙ Song (‘My mother bids me bind my hair’) ∙ Song (‘The anguish of my bursting heart’) ∙ Song (‘Far from this throbbing bosom haste’) ∙ Song (‘When hollow bursts the rushing wind’) ∙ Song (‘To wander alone’)
CHARLES DIBDIN (1745–1814)
Tom Bowling
GEORGE CRABBE (1754–1832)
Lines from The Borough (‘Old Peter Grimes made fishing his employ’) ∙ L
ines from The Borough and Tales in Verse (‘Here the strong mallow strikes her slimy root’ etc.)
WILLIAM BLAKE (1757–1827)
And did those feet in ancient time ∙ I saw a chapel all of gold ∙ The Sick Rose ∙ A Cradle Song ∙ Infant Joy ∙ *A Poison Tree ∙ Introduction ∙ *London ∙ The Lamb ∙ The Shepherd ∙ *Ah! Sun-flower ∙ A Divine Image ∙ The Divine Image ∙ Eternity ∙ Holy Thursday ∙ Proverbs 22–5 ∙ Proverb 21 ∙ The Chimney Sweeper ∙ Proverb 31 ∙ Proverb 41 ∙ The Tyger ∙ Proverbs 44, 18, 52 ∙ The Fly ∙ Proverbs 12, 11, 10 ∙ Auguries of Innocence ∙ The Little Vagabond
ROBERT BURNS (1759–96)
Musing on the roaring ocean ∙ For the sake of Somebody ∙ The Highland widow’s lament ∙ My heart’s in the Highlands ∙ The Highland balou ∙ The captain’s lady ∙ The bonie lad that’s far awa ∙ I hae a wife o’ my ain ∙ Out over the Forth ∙ A red, red rose ∙ Wha is that at my bower door? ∙ John Anderson my jo ∙ The banks o’ Doon ∙ Amang the trees ∙ O, wert thou in the cauld blast ∙ Epistle to John Maxwell, Esq., of Terraughtie ∙ A rose-bud, by my early walk ∙ Wee Willie Gray ∙ My Hoggie ∙ Sweet Afton ∙ The winter it is past ∙ Leezie Lindsay ∙ Auld lang syne
WILLIAM WORDSWORTH (1770–1850)
I travelled among unknown men ∙ The rainbow ∙ Daffodils ∙ Ode. Intimations of immortality from recollections of early childhood ∙ Lines 63–77 from The Prelude ∙ Remembrance of Collins ∙ Composed upon Westminster Bridge, September 3, 1802
SIR WALTER SCOTT (1771–1832)
Song (‘Soldier rest! thy warfare o’er’) ∙ Song continued (‘Huntsman, rest! thy chase is done’) ∙ Hymn to the Virgin ∙ Lay of the imprisoned huntsman ∙ Song (‘The heath this night must be my bed’) ∙ Boat song ∙ Coronach ∙ For leagues along the watery way ∙ The Crusader’s return
CHARLES LAMB (1775–1834)
Hypochondriacus
THOMAS MOORE (1779–1852)
Oh! breathe not his name ∙ How dear to me the hour ∙ Rich and rare were the gems she wore ∙ The origin of the Harp ∙ Row gently here ∙ When through the piazzetta ∙ At the mid hour of night ∙ Oft in the stilly night ∙ ’Tis the last rose of summer
JANE TAYLOR (1783–1824)
The star
GEORGE GORDON BYRON (1788–1824)
To a lady ∙ On parting ∙ Sun of the sleepless! ∙ To Thomas Moore ∙ I saw thee weep ∙ My soul is dark ∙ Maid of Athens ∙ So, we’ll go no more a roving ∙ Stanzas for music ∙ When we two parted ∙ Ode to Napoleon Buonaparte ∙ Stanzas to Augusta
PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY (1792–1822)
The fugitives ∙ Lines from Prometheus Unbound (‘My soul is an enchanted boat’) ∙ The world’s wanderers ∙ On a faded violet ∙ A dirge ∙ Ode to the West Wind ∙ Arethusa ∙ The sunset ∙ Love’s philosophy ∙ From the Arabic: An imitation ∙ To — (‘Music, when soft voices die’) ∙ The Indian serenade ∙ To Jane: ‘The keen stars were twinkling’ ∙ To — (‘One word is too often profaned’) ∙ Lines (‘Far, far away’) ∙ A widow bird sate mourning ∙ The waning moon ∙ To the moon ∙ Lines from Prometheus Unbound (‘On a poet’s lips I slept’) ∙ Music
JOHN CLARE (1793–1864)
‘Here morning in the ploughmans songs is met’ ∙ ‘The driving boy beside his team’ ∙ ‘When once the sun sinks in the west’ ∙ Little trotty wagtail ∙ The peasant poet ∙ ‘The turkeys wade the close to catch the bees’ ∙ ‘The shepherd on his journey heard when nigh’ ∙ ‘When first we hear the shy come nightingales’
HENRY FRANCIS LYTE (1793–1847)
Abide with me
JOHN KEATS (1795–1821)
La Belle Dame sans Merci ∙ Bright star! would I were steadfast as thou art ∙ Where be ye going, you Devon maid ∙ Extracts from an Opera VI (‘Asleep! Oh, sleep a little while’) ∙ Ode on a Grecian urn ∙ To Sleep ∙ Sleep and poetry ∙ I had a dove, and the sweet dove died
WILLIAM BARNES (1801–86)
Blackmwore maïdens ∙ My orcha’d in Linden Lea
CARDINAL NEWMAN (1801–90)
The Pillar of the Cloud ∙ Lines from The Dream of Gerontius (‘Jesu, Maria – I am near to death’; ‘Softly and gently, dearly-ransom’d soul’) ∙ from the sermon ‘Wisdom and Innocence’ (‘May He support us all the day long …’)
THOMAS LOVELL BEDDOES (1803–49)
Dream-pedlary
ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING (1806–61)
A sabbath morning at sea ∙ Sonnet I (‘I thought once how Theocritus had sung’) ∙ Sonnet XXVIII (‘My letters! – all dead paper, . . mute and white –!’) ∙ Sonnet XXXIV (‘With the same heart, I said, I’ll answer thee’) ∙ Sonnet XXXV (‘If I leave all for thee’) ∙ Sonnet XL (‘Oh, yes! – they love through all this world of ours! –’) ∙ Sonnet XLIII (‘How do I love thee? Let me count the ways! –’)
ALFRED, LORD TENNYSON (1809–92)
Crossing the bar ∙ from Maud: ‘I hate the dreadful hollow’; ‘A voice by the cedar tree’; ‘She came to the village church’; ‘O let the solid ground’; ‘Birds in the high Hall-garden’; ‘Maud has a garden of roses’; ‘Go not, happy day’; ‘I have led her home’; ‘Come into the garden, Maud’; ‘The fault was mine’; ‘Dead, long dead’; ‘O that ’twere possible’; ‘My life has crept so long’ ∙ from In Memoriam: ‘I sing to him that rests below’; ‘O Sorrow, wilt thou live with me’; ‘If Sleep and Death be truly one’; ‘Risest thou thus, dim dawn, again’; ‘When on my bed the moonlight falls’; ‘I cannot see the features right’; ‘Wild bird, whose warble, liquid sweet’; ‘To Sleep I give my powers away’; ‘Sweet after showers, ambrosial air’; ‘Who loves not Knowledge?’; ‘Strong Son of God, immortal Love’; ‘Whatever I have said or sung’ ∙ Lines from The Princess (‘Now sleeps the crimson petal’) ∙ lute song from Queen Mary ‘(Hapless doom of woman happy in betrothing!’) ∙ Lines from ‘The Lotos-Eaters’ (‘There is sweet music here that softer falls’) ∙ Lines from The Princess (‘The splendour falls on castle walls’) ∙ The Kraken
ROBERT BROWNING (1812–89)
Prospice ∙ Lines from ‘In a gondola’ ∙ Lines from ‘A lovers’ quarrel’ (‘Love, if you knew the light’) ∙ from James Lee’s Wife: James Lee’s wife speaks at the window; By the fireside; In the doorway; On the cliff; Among the rocks ∙ Such a starved bank of moss ∙ Meeting at night ∙ My star ∙ Song (‘Nay but you, who do not love her’) ∙ The worst of it ∙ After ∙ Lines from Easter-Day (‘And I cowered deprecatingly’) ∙ The year’s at the spring ∙ Home-thoughts, from abroad
EDWARD LEAR (1812–88)
There was a Young Lady of Norway ∙ There was an Old Man of the Isles ∙ There was an Old Man with a beard ∙ There was an Old Man who said, How ∙ There was a young Lady of Ryde ∙ There was a young Lady of Tyre ∙ There was an Old Man in a pew ∙ There was an Old Man in a boat ∙ There was an Old Person of Philae ∙ There was an Old Man with a nose ∙ There was a Young Lady of Russia ∙ There was an Old Man with a gong ∙ The Owl and the Pussy-cat
EMILY BRONTË (1818–48)
Love and friendship ∙ A day dream ∙ ‘Harp of wild and dream-like strain’ ∙ ‘Sleep brings no joy to me’ ∙ ‘Tell me tell me smiling child’ ∙ ‘High waving heather ’neath stormy blasts bending’ ∙ The caged bird ∙ ‘No coward soul is mine’
CECIL FRANCES ALEXANDER (1818–95)
Who was conceived by the Holy Ghost, born of the Virgin Mary ∙ Maker of Heaven and Earth ∙ There is a green hill far away
MATTHEW ARNOLD (1822–88)
Longing ∙ Lines from ‘Parting’ (‘Far, far from each other’) ∙ Lines from ‘The river’ (‘My pent-up tears oppress my brain’) ∙ Lines from The New Sirens (‘Strew no more red roses, maidens’) ∙ West London ∙ Dover beach
WILLIAM ALLINGHAM (1824–89)
The fairies
WILLIAM WHITING (1825–78)
For those at sea
DANTE GABRIEL ROSSETTI (1828–82)
Lovesight ∙ Silent noon ∙ Passion and worship ∙
Heart’s haven ∙ Death-in-love ∙ Love’s last gift ∙ The one hope
CHRISTINA ROSSETTI (1830–94)
A birthday ∙ A Christmas carol ∙ ‘Your brother has a falcon’ ∙ ‘Crying, my little one, footsore and weary?’ ∙ ‘I dug and dug amongst the snow’ ∙ ‘When a mounting skylark sings’ ∙ ‘Blind from my birth’ ∙ ‘Love me, – I love you’ ∙ ‘Good-bye in fear, good-bye in sorrow’ ∙ ‘Roses blushing red and white’ ∙ ‘Oh fair to see’ ∙ Song (‘When I am dead, my dearest’) ∙ ‘Ferry me across the water’
LEWIS CARROLL (1832–98)
‘Beautiful Soup, so rich and green’ ∙ Jabberwocky
ALGERNON CHARLES SWINBURNE (1837–1909)
Rondel ∙ A reiver’s neck-verse ∙ The winds ∙ A match ∙ Cradle Song
THOMAS HARDY (1840–1928)
Great things ∙ Summer schemes ∙ Her song ∙ Weathers ∙ Lover to mistress ∙ Come not; Yet come! ∙ Without, not within her ∙ That moment ∙ *Her temple ∙ Paying calls ∙ Where the picnic was ∙ *The oxen ∙ The master and the leaves ∙ Voices from things growing in a churchyard ∙ Exeunt omnes ∙ A young man’s exhortation ∙ Ditty ∙ Budmouth dears ∙ The comet at Yell’ham ∙ Shortening days at the Homestead ∙ The sigh ∙ Former beauties ∙ Transformations ∙ Regret not me ∙ When I set out for Lyonnesse ∙ Waiting both ∙ The phantom horsewoman ∙ After reading Psalms XXXIX, XL, etc. ∙ The sergeant’s song ∙ To Lizbie Browne ∙ The clock of the years ∙ While drawing in a churchyard ∙ *Proud songsters ∙ Childhood among the ferns ∙ Before and after summer ∙ The self-unseeing ∙ Overlooking the River Stour ∙ Channel firing ∙ In the mind’s eye ∙ The best she could ∙ Epeisodia ∙ Amabel ∙ He abjures love ∙ Let me enjoy ∙ A spot ∙ The market-girl ∙ I look into my glass ∙ It never looks like summer ∙ At a lunar eclipse ∙ Life laughs onward ∙ I need not go ∙ At Middle-Field gate in February ∙ Two lips ∙ 1967 ∙ For Life I had never cared greatly ∙ I said to Love ∙ At day-close in November ∙ Midnight on the Great Western ∙ Wagtail and baby ∙ The little old table ∙ The choirmaster’s burial ∙ At the railway station, Upway ∙ Before life and after ∙ The oxen ∙ The darkling thrush
W(ILLIAM) H(ENRY) HUDSON (1841–1922)