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Text
Persephone
English source:
Humbert Wolfe
Come back Persephone!
As a moonflake thin,
flutes for the dancers
you danced with begin.
Leave the deep hellebore,
the dark, the untranquil -
for spring's pale primrose
and her first jonquil.
Again they are singing
(O will you not heed them?)
with none now to answer,
and none to lead them.
They will grow older,
till comes a day
when the last of your maidens
is tired of play:
when the song as it rises
faints and droops over,
and your playmates go seeking
a gentler lover.
Listen the dancers!
The flutes oh listen!
Hasten Persephone!
Persephone! Hasten!
As a moonflake thin,
flutes for the dancers
you danced with begin.
Leave the deep hellebore,
the dark, the untranquil -
for spring's pale primrose
and her first jonquil.
Again they are singing
(O will you not heed them?)
with none now to answer,
and none to lead them.
They will grow older,
till comes a day
when the last of your maidens
is tired of play:
when the song as it rises
faints and droops over,
and your playmates go seeking
a gentler lover.
Listen the dancers!
The flutes oh listen!
Hasten Persephone!
Persephone! Hasten!
Composer
Gustav Holst
Gustav Theodore Holst (born Gustavus Theodore von Holst; 21 September 1874 – 25 May 1934) was an English composer. Although best known for his orchestral suite The Planets, he also composed a large number of works across a range of other…
