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Text
To ride at noon
English source:
William Henry Hudson
To ride at noon on the hottest days
when the whole Earth is a-glitter with illusory water
and see the cattle and horses in thousands
cov’ring the plain at their watering places,
to visit some haunt of large birds at that still, hot hour
and see storks, ibises, grey herons, egrets of a dazzling whiteness
and rose-coloured spoon-bills
and flamingos standing in the shallow water
in which their motionless forms are reflected.
when the whole Earth is a-glitter with illusory water
and see the cattle and horses in thousands
cov’ring the plain at their watering places,
to visit some haunt of large birds at that still, hot hour
and see storks, ibises, grey herons, egrets of a dazzling whiteness
and rose-coloured spoon-bills
and flamingos standing in the shallow water
in which their motionless forms are reflected.
Composer
Michael Tippett
Sir Michael Kemp Tippett was an English composer who rose to prominence during and immediately after the Second World War.