The insect world amid the suns and dew Awake and hum their tiny songs anew, And climb the totter grass and blossoms stem As huge in size as mighty oaks to them; And rushy burnets on the pasture rise As tall as castles to their little eyes. Each leaf’s a town and smooth meadow grass A mighty world whose bounds they never pass; E’en spots no bigger than the husbandman’s Or shepherd’s noontide dwarf shrunk shadow spans Or e’en the milkmaid tripping thro’ the dew, Each space she covers with her slender shoe Seem to their view high woods in which they roam As lorn, lost wand’rers many miles from home Creeping up bents and down whole weary hours And resting oft on the breasts of flowers Till age, in minutes long as years, creeps on, Or waning summer warns them to be gone.
The Insect World
Song Cycle by Richard Rodney Bennett (1936 - 2012)
1. The insect world  [sung text checked 1 time]
Authorship:
- by John Clare (1793 - 1864)
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Researcher for this page: Mike Pearson2. The fly  [sung text checked 1 time]
Busy, curious, thirsty Fly, [Gently drink, and]1 drink as I; Freely welcome to my Cup, Could'st thou sip, and sip it up; Make the most of Life you may, Life is short and wears away. [Just alike, both]2 mine and thine, [Hasten]3 quick to their Decline; Thine's a Summer, mine's no more, Though repeated to threescore; Threescore Summers when they're gone, Will appear as short as one.
Authorship:
- by William Oldys (1696 - 1761), "The Fly", subtitle: "An Anacreontick"
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View original text (without footnotes)Confirmed with A Literary Antiquary. Memoir of William Oldys, Esq., London, Spottiswoode & Co., 1862, page xiii
1 Bennett, Hindemith: "Drink with me and"2 Hindemith: "Both alike are"
3 Hindemith: "Hastening"
Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]
3. Glow‑worms  [sung text checked 1 time]
Ye living lamps, by whose dear light The nightingale does sit so late And studying all the summer night Her matchless song does meditate: Ye country comets that portend No war nor prince’s funeral Shining unto no higher end Than to presage the grass’s fall: Ye glow-worms whose officious flame To wand’ring mowers shows the way That in the night have lost their aim And after foolish fires do stray. Your courteous lights in vain you waste, Since Juliana here is come, For she my mind hath so displaced That I shall never find my home.
Authorship:
- by Andrew Marvell (1621 - 1678)
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Researcher for this page: Mike Pearson4. Clock‑a‑clay  [sung text checked 1 time]
In the cowslip pips I lie, Hidden from a buzzing fly, While green grass beneath me lies, Pearled with dew like fishes' eyes Here I lie, a clock-a-clay, Waiting for the time of day. While [the]1 forest quakes surprise, And the wild wind sobs and sighs, My home rocks as like to fall, On its pillar green and tall, While the pattering rain drives by, Clock-a-clay keeps warm and dry. Day by day and night by night, All the week I hide from sight, In the cowslip pips I lie, In rain and dew still warm and dry, Day and night and night and day, Red, black-spotted clock-a-clay. My home shakes in wind and showers, Pale green pillar topped with flowers, Bending at the wild wind's breath, Till I touch the grass beneath; Here I live, lone clock-a-clay, Watching for the time of day.
Authorship:
- by John Clare (1793 - 1864), "Clock-a-clay", appears in Life and Remains of John Clare, first published 1873
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View original text (without footnotes)Note: clock-a-clay is an old name for the ladybird.
1 Bennett: "grassy"
Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]