Now Sleeps the Crimson Petal, Now the White
by Alfred Lord Tennyson
Now sleeps the crimson petal, now the white;
Nor waves the cypress in the palace walk;
Nor winks the gold fin in the porphyry* font:
The fire-fly wakens: waken thou with me.
[Now droops the milkwhite peacock like a ghost,]
[And like a ghost she glimmers on to me.]
[Now lies the Earth all Danae** to the stars,]
[And all thy heart lies open unto me.]
[Now slides the silent meteor on, and leaves]
[A shining furrow, as thy thoughts in me.]
Now folds the lily all her sweetness up,
And slips into the bosom of the lake:
So fold thyself, my dearest, thou, and slip
Into my bosom and be lost in me.
*porphyry:
a purple-red stone containing crystals throughout,
coming from the eastern desert of Egypt.
**Danae:
character in Greek mythology, who, after being locked up in
a subterranean chamber by her father, was "visited" by Zeus in
a shower of gold rain, thereby conceiving Perseus.
Roger Quilter / Now sleeps the crimson petal, Op.3 No.2
Sarah Leonard
Robert White
Now sleeps the crimson petal -
Alfred Tennyson의 사랑을 주제로 쓴 1847년 시,
"Now sleeps the crimson petal, now the white"에 곡을 붙인
여러 작곡자 중 가장 애청되는 Roger Quilter의 곡이다.
Burns의 유명한 시 첫행에서 "Oh, my luve's like a red red rose" 처럼
Tennyson 또한 잠든 연인을 "crimson petal" of a red rose로 표현하고 있다.
Alfred Lord Tennyson