Six Songs, with Pianoforte Accompaniment
Words by A. E. HOUSMAN. Music by JOHN IRELAND
Sung by GEORGE PARKER (Baritone)
Accompanied by the Composer
THE six songs in this cycle are settings of words by A. E. Housman , the Professor of Latin at Cambridge, whose Shropshire Lad poems have been set by several composers.
The First, The Lent Lily, is an invitation to :—
' come out to ramble
The hilly brakes around ... And bear from hill and valley The daffodil away
That dies on Easter day.'
The Second, Ladslove, begins :—
'Look not in my eyes, for fear
They mirror true the sign I see,
And there you find your face too clear, And love it and be lost like me.'
In the Third, Goal and Wicket, the lad tries <o lose his sorrow in games.
The Vain Desire is the title of the Fourth.
In the Fifth song. The Encounter, the bystander tells of a chance look that passes between him and a soldier marching through the street with his company.
The final song, Epilogue, is very short :--
' You smile upon your friend today, Today his ills are over ...' 'Tis late ... to smile
But better late than never.
I shall have lived a little while Before I die for ever.'