by Humbert Wolfe (1885 - 1940)
On Betelgeuse
Language: English
On Betelgeuse the gold leaves hang in golden aisles for twice a hundred million miles, and twice a hundred million years they golden hang and nothing stirs, on Betelgeuse. Space is a wind that does not blow on Betelgeuse, and time - oh time - is a bird, whose wings have never stirred the golden avenues of leaves on Betelgeuse. On Betelgeuse there is nothing that joys or grieves the unstirred multitude of leaves, nor ghost of evil or good haunts the gold multitude on Betelgeuse. And birth they do not use nor death on Betelgeuse, and the God, of whom we are infinite dust, is there a single leaf of those gold leaves on Betelgeuse.
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Text Authorship:
- by Humbert Wolfe (1885 - 1940), "Betelgeuse", appears in The Unknown Goddess, first published 1925 [author's text not yet checked against a primary source]
Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive):
- by Geoffrey Allen (b. 1927), "On Betelgeuse", op. 76a no. 1 (2010) [ voice and viola (or voice, violin and viola) ], from Two songs : for voice and viola (or voice, violin and viola), no. 1 [sung text not yet checked]
- by Geoffrey Allen (b. 1927), "On Betelgeuse", op. 76b no. 1 (2010) [ baritone, viola, and cello ], from Two songs for baritone, viola and cello, no. 1 [sung text not yet checked]
- by Gustav Holst (1874 - 1934), "Betelgeuse", op. 48 no. 12, H. 174 no. 12 (1929), published 1930 [ voice and piano ], from Twelve Humbert Wolfe Songs, no. 12 [sung text checked 1 time]
Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]
This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 24
Word count: 114