Songs for a Squeeze-Box

 

III. Songs for a Squeeze-Box

(From The Waking, 1953)

① THE JOLLY CORNER

(a) O I have known a many a place, But never one so fair As the little pub on the corner, With the sawdust on the floor.

(b) And there I’ll sit and drink my fill, And talk with friends so dear; And never more I’ll wander, While there is such good beer.

② SONG

(a) The lady and the leopard, The lion and the lamb, They all are in the garden, And happy as I am.

(b) The sun is on the water, The moon is on the hill, And all the world is singing, While I am sitting still.

IV. Four for Sir John Davies

(Excerpts)

① THE DANCE

(a) Is that dance slowing in the mind of man That made him great in those old "dance" days? The spirit moves, but not as a snail can. A thing of air, it takes a windy way. I take this cadence from a man named Yeats; I take it, and I find the ground is sweet.

(b) Under a tree, beside a flowing lake, I saw a man who danced with his own shadow; And then I saw the shadow start to shake, And then the man, and then the whole wide meadow. The wood-thrush sang; the world began to spin; The dance of life was ready to begin.

③ THE VIGIL

(a) Dante star-gazed, and so did I. The light was more than light; it was a fire. I saw the world as in a lover’s eye, And all the world was part of my desire. The spirit and the flesh were one at last, And all the shadows of the night were past.

④ THE HORSE

(a) The horse that gallops in the field of night, The horse that carries us beyond the day, He is the source of all our inner light, The one who leads us on our lonely way. We ride him well, we ride him to the end, And find in him a brother and a friend.

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