OK, so I’m a sentimental old what-not… But let’s hear it for old-fashioned love poems, now and then! I’ve chosen this one for Wednesday Words, as hosted each week by Emma over at Crazy With Twins. It was written in 1928 as an adaptation of an Italian aria in the opera ‘Tolomeo’ (Ptolemy) by Handel.
Silent Worship
Did you not hear My Lady
Go down the garden singing
Blackbird and thrush were silent
To hear the alleys ringing
Oh saw you not My Lady
Out in the garden there
Shaming the rose and lily
For she is twice as fair.
Though I am nothing to her
Though she must rarely look at me
And though I could never woo her
I love her till I die.
Surely you heard My Lady
Go down the garden singing
Silencing all the songbirds
And setting the alleys ringing.
But surely you see My Lady
Out in the garden there
Rivalling the glittering sunshine
With a glory of golden hair.
Sir Arthur Somervell (1863 – 1937)
Set to the music by George Frideric Handel (1685 – 1759)
You can listen to this song here, sung by David Hughes.
How did I miss this last week? So sorry.
what a beautiful poem. Sometimes the old ones are the best (in fact more often than not in literature). Just lovely.
Fantastic Wednesday Words xx