Music Monday: Yeats to Music
For the last couple of “Music Mondays“, MontanaWriter has been featuring the poetry of W.B. Yeats set to music. For other Yeats poems set to music, click here.
Van Morrison has long been one of my favorite singers. Born in Northern Ireland, he brings an authentic sound and voice to Yeats’ words.
“Before the World Was Made” is classic Yeats in sound and tone and diction. Van Morrison’s version of the poem diminishes nothing of Yeats’ power while at the same time bringing an accessibility to a poet who can admittedly be quite intimidating.
Enjoy!
Before the World Was Made
If I make the lashes dark
And the eyes more bright
And the lips more scarlet,
Or ask if all be right
From mirror after mirror,
No vanity’s displayed:
I’m looking for the face I had
Before the world was made.
What if I look upon a man
As though on my beloved,
And my blood be cold the while
And my heart unmoved?
Why should he think me cruel
Or that he is betrayed?
I’d have him love the thing that was
Before the world was made.
____
Follow MontanaWriter on Twitter