Purcell Ode, and Other Poems :: WINTER NIGHTFALL.

WINTER NIGHTFALL.

Robert Bridges

The day begins to droop,—
Its course is done;
But nothing tells the place
Of the setting sun.

The hazy darkness deepens,
And up the lane
You may hear, but cannot see,
The homing wain.

An engine pants and hums
In the farm hard by:
Its lowering smoke is lost
In the lowering sky.

The soaking branches drip,
And all night through
The dropping will not cease
In the avenue.

A tall man there in the house
Must keep his chair:
He knows he will never again
Breathe the spring air.

His heart is worn with work;
He is giddy and sick
If he rise to go as far
As the nearest rick.

He thinks of his morn of life,
His hale, strong years;
And braves as he may the night
Of darkness and tears.

ERRATA. (corrected in this etext.)

Page 40, second line from bottom, for “discontinue,” read “disentwine.”

Page 51, third line from top, for “thy,” read “the.”

FOOTNOTES:

[1] For example, there is a passage in Dr. Parry’s recent work, “The Art of Music,” which will illustrate what I mean. It is in the chapter on Modern Tendencies. See especially, page 311.

[2] I omit the idea, the musical suggestion of which is a feat of genius, independent of style. The apprehension and exhibition of the mood is generally considered a simple matter, but really it affords a wide field for subtlety of interpretation. I have, for the sake of simplicity, assumed that in their choral music the older musicians altogether disregarded the speech inflection of the phrase; but this is not quite true, and since, especially in such words as they usually set, the speech inflection is often uncertain and unimportant, or altogether a nonentity, and would very well correspond with almost any simple musical expression of the mood, this distinction between ancients and moderns cannot always be seen, or will appear only as a difference of degree.

[3] Throughout these remarks I speak chiefly of the Ode. It is necessary in so wide a subject to aim at a definite mark, and while an ode happens to be in question, the Ode is also the example which is taken by Dr. Parry in the passage to which I have referred the reader.

Clyx.com