This edition was prepared by Charles West — free to download, print, rehearse and perform.
Binsey Poplars
Staff Notation • Secular, Laments
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Binsey Poplars by Charles West — Lyrics
My aspens dear, whose airy cages quelled,
Quelled or quenched in leaves the leaping sun,
All felled, felled, are all felled;
Of a fresh and following folded rank
Not spared, not one
that dandled a sandalled
shadow that swam or sank
on meadow and river and windwandering weedwinding bank.
O if we but knew what we do
When we delve or hew –
Hack and rack the growing green!
Since country is so tender
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About Binsey Poplars
Charles West sets Gerard Manley Hopkins's lament Binsey Poplars for SAATB voices. The poem expresses profound grief at the felling of a line of trees, transforming a beloved natural scene into a stark, altered landscape. The text reflects on humanity's destructive actions, questioning our awareness of the damage we inflict and the irreversible loss of natural beauty. The composer captures this elegy for the natural world with a rich, five-part texture, allowing the sorrowful text to resonate fully.
