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    Lyrics: 'Ah, the thin harvest of laborious days!''
    Lyrics: 'Ah, the thin harvest of laborious days!''
    Lyrics: 'Ah, the thin harvest of laborious days!''
    Ebook116 pages59 minutes

    Lyrics: 'Ah, the thin harvest of laborious days!''

    By Arthur Christopher Benson

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    Arthur Christopher Benson, FRSL was born on the 24th April 1862 at Wellington College, Berkshire. His father would later become the Archbishop of Canterbury. His brother was the noted E F Benson of ‘Mapp & Lucia’ literary fame.

    The family was blighted by the early death of two children. Benson himself suffered with bi-polar disorder. None of the surviving children married.

    In 1874 he went to Eton and thence on to King's College, Cambridge and achieved first-class honours in the Classical tripos in 1884.

    From 1885 to 1903 Benson taught at Eton, but returned, as a Fellow of Magdalene College, to Cambridge in 1904 to lecture in English Literature. He became president of the college in 1912, and the Master from December 1915 until his death in 1925.

    As a writer Benson was prolific across a number of genres. His essays and literary criticisms were much admired. His short story collections, mainly supernatural and ghost stories, along with several volumes of poetry were distinctive and of note.

    As well he wrote lyrics for the ‘Coronation Ode’, which includes the rousing ‘Land of Hope and Glory’ set to music by Edward Elgar for the 1902 coronation of King Edward VII and Queen Alexandra.

    A Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, he founded the Benson Medal in 1916 ‘in respect of meritorious works in poetry, fiction, history and belles lettres’.

    A C Benson died at the Master's Lodge at Magdalene on the 17th June 1925. He was 63.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPortable Poetry
    Release dateJan 1, 2022
    ISBN9781803542270
    Lyrics: 'Ah, the thin harvest of laborious days!''
    Author

    Arthur Christopher Benson

    Arthur Christopher Benson (24 April 1862 – 17 June 1925) was an English essayist, poet, author and academic and the 28th Master of Magdalene College, Cambridge. He is noted for writing the words of the song "Land of Hope and Glory". (Wikipedia)

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      Book preview

      Lyrics - Arthur Christopher Benson

      Lyrics by Arthur Christopher Benson

      Arthur Christopher Benson, FRSL was born on the 24th April 1862 at Wellington College, Berkshire.  His father would later become the Archbishop of Canterbury.  His brother was the noted E F Benson of ‘Mapp & Lucia’ literary fame.

      The family was blighted by the early death of two children.  Benson himself suffered with bi-polar disorder.  None of the surviving children married.

      In 1874 he went to Eton and thence on to King's College, Cambridge and achieved first-class honours in the Classical tripos in 1884.

      From 1885 to 1903 Benson taught at Eton, but returned, as a Fellow of Magdalene College, to Cambridge in 1904 to lecture in English Literature.  He became president of the college in 1912, and the Master from December 1915 until his death in 1925.

      As a writer Benson was prolific across a number of genres.  His essays and literary criticisms were much admired.  His short story collections, mainly supernatural and ghost stories, along with several volumes of poetry were distinctive and of note.

      As well he wrote lyrics for the ‘Coronation Ode’, which includes the rousing ‘Land of Hope and Glory’ set to music by Edward Elgar for the 1902 coronation of King Edward VII and Queen Alexandra.

      A Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, he founded the Benson Medal in 1916 ‘in respect of meritorious works in poetry, fiction, history and belles lettres’.

      A C Benson died at the Master's Lodge at Magdalene on the 17th June 1925. He was 63.

      Index of Contents

      EDMUND GOSSE

      A CANTICLE OF COMMON THINGS 

      AT TAN-YR-ALLT 

      FEBRUARY 

      SPRING IN THE CITY

      IN THE HEART OF THE WOOD 

      IN THE GARDEN 

      THE WIND-HARP 

      BY THE GAVE

      ST LUKE’s SUMMER AGAIN

      NOVEMBER 

      THE WINTER SLEEP

      A DEAD STAR 

      THE STAGE OF HEAVEN 

      CLOUDS 

      BY THE SHORE 

      THE MILL-WHEEL

      BY THE STREAM 

      A LILY OF ANNUNCIATION 

      NASTURTIUMS 

      PINES 

      ROSEMARY 

      THB ORCHID 

      RED FLOWERING CURRANT 

      THE OREY PIE 

      THE YAFFLE

      VESPERS 

      THE SPARROW 

      WOUNDS 

      THE ANT-HEAP

      THE NEWT 

      THE BEE ON THE GLACIER

      APIS MATINA 

      MORNAY 

      IN THE CLOISTER 

      ASCENDBNTI 

      FATIDIOA

      TO THE LADY KITTY 

      ROSALIND 

      AT NETHER-STOWEY

      IF DREAMS WERE TRUE 

      NO REST 

      AN UNKNOWN MASTER 

      OASTON DE FOIX 

      TIMON 

      DOROTHEA 

      MY POET 

      IN THE TRAIN 

      AN ENGLISH SHELL 

      THE ROCKET 

      THE TRUANT 

      THE RAINBOW BRIDGE 

      IMAGINATION 

      THE SECRET

      LINQUENDA

      OUTWARD BOUND 

      SECURITY 

      BEHIND THE BARS 

      THE HAUNTED GLADE 

      AAIM0NIZ0MEN02 

      NEVERTHELESS 

      REALISM

      RELEASE 

      DEA HYPA 

      THE MOMENT 

      REPROOF 

      REGRET 

      ATTRIBUTES 

      THE PRISON WALL 

      PRAYER 

      CONTENT 

      ^ I AM SMALL AND OF NO REPUTATION; YET DO I NOT FOROET THY COMMANDMENTS ' 

      IN THE FIELD 

      \ CONSTRUING 

      ATIiOOK-UP 

      A DEATH-BED 

      NEW tear's day 

      M. E. B. 

      AFTERWARDS 

      OENETBUAOON 

      THE ROBIN AND THE CREDENCE

      ARTHUR CHRISTOPHER BENSON – A CONCISE BIBLIOGRAPHY

      TO EDMUND GOSSE

      Voice of my sotd, how/airU your echoes ring!

      Children of hope, how negligently dressed!

      Friend, if you lean and listen where I sing,

      I care not for the rest.

      Ah, the thin harvest of laborious days!

      Truest of critics and of friends most true,

      The chastened glories of my slender lays

      Be consecrate to you.

      Rich and profuse your precious bakns were shed;

      They smoothed your critic arrows, salved the smart;

      They broke the stubborn pride of hand and head;

      They did not break the heart!

      Eton, 1894.

      https://archive.org/stream/lyrics01bensgoog/lyrics01bensgoog_djvu.txt

      I ."^QOO-^

      . I l^i"lw- I *.

      '—nee me mea faUit imago. '

      A CANTICLE OF COMMON THINGS

      I praise Thee, Father, for the sky.

      Thy soft translucent canopy^

      The pompous cloudhmd trailing by.

      For large and level plains that swell

      To wooded height, sequestered dell.

      Not waste, but tilled and watered well;

      For elms that break in cloudy green.

      With hamlet roofs that peep between,

      For orchards rather guessed than seen.

      For water, wayward sprite, that runs

      So clear and deep neath dusty suns.

      To cleanse and cool Thy little ones;

      For thundering weirs and silent wells,

      For water-plants with humid cells,

      Pink willow-herb and cumfrey bells.

      For autumn with his flaming hand

      Dashed on the covert^ with the brand

      Of deaths and silence subtly planned;

      For summer indolently fair,

      For winter with her keener air.

      For spring with her surprises rare.

      I praise Thee, Father, for the prize

      Of friendship, whether wild or wise.

      The sudden glance of answering eyes;

      For motions of bewildering grace.

      For spirits sweeter than the face

      That screens them; for that lost embrace.

      For sessions leisurely and sweety

      When firelight warms the idle feet.

      Where fact and fantasy compete.

      For music—ah, the gracious thing!—

      Or blown aloft on airy wing.

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