Songs

The Lark Ascending

by Ian Venables From Portraits of a Mind Op. 54

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Text

The Lark Ascending
English source: George Meredith

He rises and begins to round,
He drops the silver chain of sound
Of many links without a break,
As up he wings the spiral stair,
A song of light, that pierces air
To reach the shining tops of day,
And drink in everything discern’d
An ecstasy to music turn’d.
He is, the hills, the human line,
The meadows green, the fallows brown,
He sings the sap, the quicken’d veins;
The wedding song of sun and rains
He is, the dance of children, thanks
Of sowers, shout of primrose-banks,
And eye of violets while they breathe;
All these the circling song will wreathe.
Was never voice of ours could say
Our inmost in the sweetest way,
Like yonder voice aloft, and link
All hearers in the song they drink.

Composer

Ian Venables

Ian Venables (born 1955) is a British composer of art songs and chamber music.

Poet

George Meredith

George Meredith (12 February 1828 – 18 May 1909) was an English novelist and poet.

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