Sung by Philip Eve, tenor, with Christopher Gould, piano, live at the Canterbury Festival.
Genre: Vocal
Mood: Tragic
Forces: Male voice, Piano
Length: 7 Minutes
Three contrasting poems of Thomas Hardy, set for male voice and piano.
A Hardy Triptych
Three poems by Thomas Hardy
Shut out that moon
Close up the casement, draw the blind,
Shut out that stealing moon,
She wears too much the guise she wore
Before our lutes were strewn
With years-deep dust, and names we read
On a white stone were hewn.
Step not forth on the dew-dashed lawn
To view the Lady's Chair,
Immense Orion's glittering form,
The Less and Greater Bear:
Stay in; to such sights we were drawn
When faded ones were fair.
Brush not the bough for midnight scents
That come forth lingeringly,
And wake the same sweet sentiments
They breathed to you and me
When living seemed a laugh, and love
All it was said to be.
Within the common lamp-lit room
Prison my eyes and thought;
Let dingy details crudely loom,
Mechanic speech be wrought:
Too fragrant was Life's early bloom,
Too tart the fuit it brought!
Weathers
This is the weather the cuckoo likes,
And so do I;
When showers betumble the chestnut spikes,
And nestlings fly;
And the little brown nightingale bills his best,
And the sit outside at ‘The Travellers' Rest',
And maids come forth sprig-muslin drest
And citizens dream of the south and west
And so do I.
This is the weather the shepherd shuns,
And so do I;
When beeches drip in browns and duns,
And thresh and ply;
And hill-hid tides throb, throe on throe,
And meadow rivulets overflow,
And drops on gate-bars hang in a row,
And rooks in families homeward go,
And so do I.
Men Who March Away
What of the faith and fire within us
Men who march away
Ere the barn-cocks say
Night is going grey,
Leaving all that here can win us;
What of the faith and fire within us
Men who march away?
Is it a purblind prank, O think you,
Friend with the musing eye,
Who watch us stepping by
With doubt and dolorous sigh?
Can much pondering so hoodwink you!
Is it a purblind prank, O think you,
Friend with the musing eye?
Nay. We well see what we are doing,
Though some may not see -
Dalliers as they be -
England's need are we;
Her distress would leave us rueing:
Nay. We well see what we are doing.
In our heart of hearts believing
Victory crowns the just,
And that braggarts must
Surely bite the dust,
Press we to the field ungrieving,
In our heart of hearts believing
Victory crowns the just.
Hence the faith and fire within us
Men who march away
Ere the barn-cocks say
Night is growing grey,
Leaving all that here can win us;
Hence the faith and fire within us
Men who march away.
Thomas Hardy 1840-1928
A Hardy Triptych
Three poems by Thomas Hardy
Thomas Hardy is nowadays best known as a novelist, yet thought of himself primarily as a poet.
I chose here three poems which show contrasting sides of his work. The first - Shut Out That Stealing Moon - comes from the flood of poems which followed the death of Hardy’s first wife. They had been estranged for some years, but her death brought on in Hardy feelings of guilt and a nostalgia for their early love. This poem typifies the regretful bitter tone of his output at this time.
The second - Weathers - shows Hardy at his most genial, beautifully capturing the effect of nature on the poet’s spirit. The third - Men Who March Away - was written in the heady first few weeks of World War One, when most Britons welcomed the coming of war. Like other British poets of the time, including Kipling, Brooke and others, Hardy wrote lines extolling patriotic duty. Later, when war was seen for the fruitless carnage it became, these lines must have echoed hollowly back to him: ‘We well see what we are doing… victory crowns the just…”
I have therefore chosen to make the last verse ironic: the vocal line remains unchanged from its first appearance, but the accompaniment suggests other sentiments.
F L Dunkin Wedd
Tonbridge, Kent
©1998
First performance: 25 Jan 2009, Roberto Mancusi and Elaine Harriss, Martin TN, USA.
First UK performance: 18 Oct 2009, Philip Eve and Chris Gould, Canterbury, Kent
First London performance: 9 Sep 2011, Roberto Mancusi and John Flinders, St Martin in the Fields.