Wearily, drearily,
Half the day long,
Flap the great banners
High over the stone;
Strangely and eerily
Sounds the wind's song,
Bending the banner-poles.
While, all alone,
Watching the loophole's spark,
Lie I, with life all dark,
Feet tether'd, hands fetter'd
Fast to the stone,
The grim walls, square-letter'd
With prison'd men's groan.
Still strain the banner-poles
Through the wind's song,
Westward the banner rolls
Over my wrong.
Half the day long,
Flap the great banners
High over the stone;
Strangely and eerily
Sounds the wind's song,
Bending the banner-poles.
While, all alone,
Watching the loophole's spark,
Lie I, with life all dark,
Feet tether'd, hands fetter'd
Fast to the stone,
The grim walls, square-letter'd
With prison'd men's groan.
Still strain the banner-poles
Through the wind's song,
Westward the banner rolls
Over my wrong.
Contributed by Bernart Bartleby - 2019/7/24 - 21:59
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Musica di James Frederick Keel (1871-1954), compositore e baritono inglese.
Su versi del poeta inglese William Morris (1834-1896), contenuti nella raccolta "The Defence of Guenevere, and Other Poems" (1858)
Frederick Keel compose questo brano quando, trovandosi in Germania allo scoppio della Prima guerra mondiale, venne rinchiuso, insieme a tanti altri civili provenienti dai paesi alleati, nel campo di concentramento di Ruhleben, ricavato all'interno di un ippodromo nei pressi di Berlino.