Look, stranger, at this island now The leaping light for your delight discovers, Stand stable here And silent be, That through the channels of the ear May wander like a river The swaying sound of the sea. Here at the small field's ending pause Where the chalk wall falls to the foam, and its tall ledges Oppose the pluck And knock of the tide, And the shingle scrambles after the suck- ing surf, and the gull lodges A moment on its sheer side. Far off like floating seeds the ships Diverge on urgent voluntary errands; And the full view Indeed may enter And move in memory as now these clouds do, That pass the harbour mirror And all the summer through the water saunter.
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First published in Listener, December 1935. Revised 1936, 1958, and 1966Authorship:
- by W. H. (Wystan Hugh) Auden (1907 - 1973), "Seaside", appears in Look, Stranger! [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 (Edward) Benjamin Britten (1913 - 1976), "Seascape", op. 11 no. 3 (1937), published 1938 [ high voice and piano ], from On This Island, no. 3 [sung text checked 1 time]
- by Mervyn Burtch (b. 1929), "Seascape" [ TTBB chorus or SAB chorus and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
- by Peter Dickinson (b. 1934), "Look stranger, at this island now", 1956 [ high female voice and piano ], from Four W. H. Auden Songs, no. 1 [sung text not yet checked]
- by Daniel Rogers Pinkham (1923 - 2006), "Look, stranger, at this island now", published 1949 [ medium voice and string quartet or strings ], from Three Lyric Scenes [sung text not yet checked]
- by Neville Charles Christopher Small , "Look, stranger, at this island now", 1954 [ chorus and orchestra ] [sung text not yet checked]
- by James Stevens (b. 1930), "Look Stranger at this Island now", 1949 [ voice and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
Researcher for this page: Virginia Knight
This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 22
Word count: 124