Autumn Text by William Morris:

 Autumn

from our recent recording ‘Choral works of Gustav Holst’. Text by William Morris:

Fair is the world, now autumn's wearing,

And the sluggard sun lies long abed;

Sweet are the days, now winter's nearing,

And all winds feign that the wind is dead.

Dumb is the hedge where the crabs hang yellow,

Bright as the blossoms of the spring;

Dumb is the close where the pears grow mellow,

And none but the dauntless redbreasts sing.

Fair was the spring, but amidst his greening

Grey were the days of the hidden sun;

Fair was the summer, but overweening,

So soon his o'er-sweet days were done.

Come then, love, for peace is upon us,

Far off is failing, and far is fear,

Here where the rest in the end hath won us,

In the garnering tide of the happy year.

Come from the grey old house by the water,

Where, far from the lips of the hungry sea,

Green groweth the grass o'er the field of the slaughter,

And all is a tale for thee and me.

Autumn

Gustav Holst · Song · 2020

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