(ARTHUR SOMERVELL)
FRANK PHILLIPS (Bass-Baritone)
The STATION CHORUS and ORCHESTRA
DR. SOMERVELL'S setting of Matthew Arnold 's poem was first performed at the Leeds Triennial Festival in 1895. The merman, deserted by his human wife, still longs for her, and before ho and his sea-children seek their home below the waves, they call for her—' Margaret, Margaret.' But there is no reply.
Margaret has gone back to her earth life, happy in all its familiar sights and sounds. But now and again.
She steals to the window, and looks at the sand,
And over the sand at the sea ;
And her eyes are set in a stare ; And anon there breaks a sigh, And anon there drops a tear From a sorrow-clouded eye And a heart sorrow-laden, A long, long sigh
For the cold strange eyes of a little Mcrmaiden,
And the gleam of her golden hair.