"Come, see where golden-hearted spring
Rides crowned like a carefree king
Now too, gay flowers laughing every one
All don bright robes for joy to greet the sun.
Hark,hark, birds now in all the greenwood ways,
Pipe songs, merry merry roundelays,
With sunny hours by day
And a clear moon by night,
What misers of joy are they
Who will not spend delight.
Come, see where golden-hearted spring
Once again rides like a carefree king
Once again rides like a carefree king."
from Handel's opera "Berenice"
A gathering of flowers in the garden of the Oakville Hospital
Daffodils in the woodlands
Pear blossom and butterfly in the garden
Trout lilies in the woods.
Willow on Bronte Creek
More pear blossom, I like it against the blue house. 
These daffodils look so conversational as they wait to greet the sun.
What are they saying?
"I thought he was coming this way." 
Forsythia in full bloom, generously sharing the joy.
"However long we have to live, there are never enough springs"
P D James
We sang "Golden-hearted spring" in our local secondary school choir in England seventy years ago and the slowly paced, but joyous and majestic music is embedded in the circuits of my mind. It was a beautiful spring that year and the end of the war was in sight. I would love to slip back in time and hear our childish voices piping "merry roundelays". Does any one know if a recording is available anywhere?
I too sang it at school and did not know til now where it came from, I would love to track down a recording. Rosie.
ReplyDeleteLikewise, sung it in school in 1968 in Norwich and never forgotten it.
ReplyDeleteEmbedded in my mind too, a lovely song, I just heard an orchestral arrangement on the radio this morning and sang along remembering all the words from primary school - some lovely things are embedded in our minds forever. I will never forget performing this piece.
ReplyDeletei wonder if the kids of today will have such lovely memories of the music that they are introduced to. i am so thankful to the teachers of my youth who nourished my love of music by giving us such a rich variety of beautiful well written music that will stay with me my whole life long.
ReplyDeleteI'm well into my ninetieth year now and I just recalled some of these lyrics a few moments ago, remembered imperfectly from my early school-days in Stockton on Tees. Thanks for providing the means to refresh my memory.
ReplyDeleteRonald W. Haslock rwhaslock@gmail.com