Seascape “… Consider a wave …”
Libretto by Bob Devereux
Reciter Here,
in the full light of the sun,
Facing
the great atlantic ocean,
An
artist prepares to paint;
Evading all quaint romantic notions of his father's generation.
He
needs no red sails,
No
white whales,
No
weepers at green windows,
No
sad-eyed maids in widows' weeds,
No
brave deeds of the deep;
Only his easel and his paints and the restless sea.
Soprano Where
is the feeling in you
That
helps you know the way it is to be the ocean?
Ev'ry small wave that breaks,
Does not wait for you to fix its form.
Men All
at sea.
Reciter This is reality
...
Soprano This
is reality:
I
am restless,
I
am ever changing.
Ladies All
at sea.
Baritone Consider
a wave ....
Reciter Consider a wave as it moves
towards the shore;
The
falling water imprisons air,
A
surge of foam, and then it's no more.
Chorus All
at sea, all at sea.
Baritone Consider
as they move towards the shore;
Each
wave the shadow of another wave -
Each wave another shadow.
Soprano Consider
me, oh, consider me;
Dragged
by a yellowing moon
From
low tide to high tide;
Driven
by winds,
Ridden by men and porpoises.
But
I will be free.
Baritone All
her percussion
Comes
rushing in in whiteness.
Gulls'
cries, salt scales,
The
flashing tails of fishes.
Each charging wave skies heavenwards on impact.
A
tow'ring pegasus
of flying spray
Held briefly in rainbows.
Soprano You
have a keen eye,
And
I know it is your destiny to paint me so.
If
you wait, only wait,
I
will let you see clear through me,
Clean
through to my green heart.
I
am no lady ....
Men I
leave my lace petticoats in tatters on the shore.
Some
dancing days I have been as loving as the town whore.
I
have made gentle drums of all the boat bottoms in the bay,
And
the bigger boys come running to play.
Soprano Oh,
they were never shy with me.
Men For
I was brazen, and they were bold then,
As
they somersaulted and vaulted
All
naked, golden, unashamed,
Knowing
they did no harm.
And
then they came leaping, laughing,
Into my waiting arms.
Soprano Oh,
they were never shy with me.
Soprano & In
squall and high wind
Baritone They've followed their calling,
Our boys.
And
how many men have been drowned?
And
how many boats have gone down?
All
lost in the trumpeting sea.
Lost with all hands.
Chorus Where
are the crew of the 'Mystery'?
Lost for eternity.
Where
is poor James?
Drowned in his thigh boots.
Baritone Face
up he floated aongst the bladderwrack,
With
the green weed in his hair,
And
all his life span floating before him;
Reciter ...
only twenty years.
Baritone And
all his lover's tears,
And
all his mother's tears,
Will not bring him back.
Chorus Each
wave the shadow of another wave,
The shadow of a ghost that went before.
Baritone Consider
as they move towards the shore;
Baritone Each wave
the shadow of another wave -
& Chorus
Each
wave another shadow.
Ladies Where
are the 'Jane' and the 'Captain Peter'?
Where's
the 'Grace Darling'?
Reciter Smashed
on the shore.
Men Where
are the 'Joyce' and the good gig 'Jabez'?
Reciter Nobody
speaks of them any more.
Baritone The 'Fortitude', the 'Maggie', the 'Lily
John'?
Chorus Gone
... Gone ... Gone.
Soprano I
have drowned men.
© Bob Deveruex
1980