by Andrew Marvell (1621 - 1678)
Glow‑worms
Language: English
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) [author's text not yet checked against a primary source]
Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive):
- by Richard Rodney Bennett (1936 - 2012), "Glow-worms", published 1966, from The Insect World, no. 3. [text verified 1 time]
Researcher for this page: Mike Pearson
This text was added to the website: 2016-07-10
Line count: 16
Word count: 96