by Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806 - 1861)
Thou hast thy calling to some...
Language: English
Thou hast thy calling to some palace-floor, Most gracious singer of high poems! where The dancers will break footing, from the care Of watching up thy pregnant lips for more. And dost thou lift this house's latch too poor For hand of thine? and canst thou think and bear To let thy music drop here unaware In folds of golden fulness at my door? Look up and see the casement broken in, The bats and owlets builders in the roof! My cricket chirps against thy mandolin. Hush, call no echo up in further proof Of desolation! there's a voice within That weeps... as thou must sing... alone, aloof.
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Text Authorship:
- by Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806 - 1861), appears in Poems, in Sonnets from the Portuguese, no. 4, first published 1847 [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 Frederic Balazs (b. 1920), "Thou hast thy calling to some palace-floor", published 1960 [ high voice and string quartet or chamber orchestra ], from Sonnets after Elizabeth Barrett Browning [sung text not yet checked]
- by Celius Dougherty (1902 - 1986), "Thou hast thy calling to some palace-floor", 1975 [ soprano and piano ], from Eglantine and Ivy [sung text not yet checked]
- by Eleanor Everest Freer (1864 - 1942), "Thou hast thy calling to some palace-floor", published 1907 [ mezzo-soprano and piano ], from Sonnets from the Portuguese, no. 4 [sung text not yet checked]
- by Oskar Morawetz (b. 1917), "Sonnet IV: Thou hast thy calling to some palace-floor", 1955 [ high voice and piano ], from Sonnets from the Portuguese, no. 2 [sung text checked 1 time]
Settings in other languages, adaptations, or excerpts:
- Also set in German (Deutsch), a translation by Rainer Maria Rilke (1875 - 1926) , no title, appears in Sonette aus dem Portugiesischen, no. 4, first published 1908 ; composed by Egon Joseph Wellesz.
Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]
This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 14
Word count: 108