Passing of the Year Program Notes
1. Invocation
O Earth, O Earth, return
William Blake
2. The narrow bud opens her beauties to the sun
The narrow bud opens her beauties to
The sun, and love runs in her thrilling veins;
Blossoms hang round the brows of morning, and
Flourish down the bright cheek of modest eve,
Till clust’ring Summer breaks forth into singing,
And feather’d clouds strew flowers round her head.The spirits of the air live on the smells
Of fruit; and joy, with pinions light, roves round
The gardens, or sits singing in the trees.Summer is icumen in
Lhude sing cuccu
William Blake
3. Answer July
Answer July -
Where is the Bee -
Where is the Blush -
Where is the Hay?Ah, said July -
Where is the Seed -
Where is the Bud -
Where is the May -
Answer Thee - Me -Nay - said the May -
Show me the Snow -
Show me the Bells -
Show me the Jay!Quibbled the Jay -
Where be the Maize -
Where be the Haze -
Where be the Bur?
Here - said the Year -
Emily Dickinson
4. Hot sun, cool fire
Hot sun, cool fire, temper’d with sweet air,
Black shade, fair nurse, shadow my white hair:
Shine, sun; burn, fire; breathe, air, and ease me;
Black shade, fiar nurse, shroud me and please me:
Shadow, my sweet nurse, keep me from burning,
Make not my glad cause, cause of {my} mourning.
Let not my beauty’s fire
Enflame unstaid desire,
Nor pierce any bright eye
That wand’reth lightly.
George Peele
5. Ah, Sun-flower!
Ah, Sun-flower! weary of time,
Who countest the steps of the Sun,
Seeking after that sweet golden clime
Where the traveller’s journey is done:Where the Youth pined away with desire,
And the pale Virgin shrouded in snow
Arise from their graves, and aspire
Where my Sun-flower wishes to go
William Blake
6. Adieu! farewell earth’s bliss!
Adieu! farewell earth’s bliss!
This world uncertain is:
Fond are life’s lustful joys,
Death proves them all but toys.
None from his darts can fly:
I am sick, I must die -
Lord, have mercy on us!Rich men, trust not in weath,
Gold cannot buy you health;
Physic himself must fade;
All things to end are made;
The plague full swift goes by:
I am sick, I must die -
Lord, have mercy on us!Beauty is but a flower
Which wrinkles will devour:
Brightness falls from the air;
Queens have died young and fair
Dust hath closed Helen’s eye:
I am sick, I must die -
Lord, have mercy on us!
Thomas Nashe
7. Ring out, wild bells
O Earth, O Earth, return!
Ring out, wild bells, to the wild sky,
The flying cloud, the frosty light:
The year is dying in the night;
Ring out, wild bells, and let him die.Ring out the old, ring in the new,
Ring, happy bells, across the snow:
The year is going, let him go;
Ring out the false, ring in the true.Ring out the grief that saps the mind,
For those that here we see no more;
Ring out th efeud of rick and poor,
Ring in redress to all mankind.Ring out the want, the care, the sin,
The faithless coldness of the time;
Ring out, ring out my mournful rhymes,
But ring the fuller minstrel in.Ring out old shapes of foul disease;
Ring out the narrowing lust of gold
Ring out the thousand wars of old,
Ring in the thousand years of peace
Alfred Lord Tennyson