I travelled among unknown men, 
  In lands beyond the sea;
Nor England! did I know till then
  What love I bore to thee.

'Tis past, that melancholy dream!
  Nor will I quit [thy shore]1 
A second time, for still I seem
  To love thee more and more.

Among thy mountains did I feel
  The joy of my desire;
And she I cherished turned [her]2 wheel
  Beside an English fire.

Thy mornings showed, thy nights concealed,
  The bowers where Lucy played;
And thine [too is]3 the last green field
  That Lucy's eyes surveyed.

About the headline (FAQ)

View original text (without footnotes)
¹ Britten: "again"
² Ives: "the"
³ Ives: "is too"

Text Authorship:

• by William Wordsworth (1770 - 1850), "I travelled among unknown men", written 1801, appears in Lyrical Ballads, first published 1807 [author's text checked 1 time 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 (Edward) Benjamin Britten (1913 - 1976), "From 'Lucy'" [ voice and piano ] [sung text checked 1 time]
• by Nigel Dodd , "Lucy III" [ bass or baritone, piano ], from The Lucy Poems: A Song Cycle for Bass-Baritone and Piano, no. 3 [sung text not yet checked]
• by Charles Edward Ives (1874 - 1954), "I travelled among unknown men", 1901 [sung text checked 1 time]

Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):

• CAT Catalan (Català) (Salvador Pila) , copyright © 2024, (re)printed on this website with kind permission

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 16
Word count: 92