The_Land_of_Lost_Content_(John_Ireland)
The Land of Lost Content (John Ireland)
Song cycle by John Ireland
The Land of Lost Content is a song cycle for voice and piano composed in 1920–21 by John Ireland (1879–1962). It consists of settings of six poems by A. E. Housman from his 1896 collection A Shropshire Lad.[1][2]
A typical performance takes about 11 minutes. The songs are, with Roman numerals from A Shropshire Lad, and first lines where Housman did not title his poem:[3]
- XXIX "The Lent Lily" [4]
- XV "Ladslove" ("Look not in my eyes")
- XVII "Goal and Wicket" ("Twice a week the winter thorough")
- XXXIII "The Vain Desire" ("If truth in hearts that perish")
- XXII "The Encounter" ("The street sounds to the soldiers' tread")
- LVII "Epilogue" ("You smile upon your friend today")
The title of the cycle is taken from Housman's poem "Into my heart an air that kills", XL in A Shropshire Lad:
That is the land of lost content,
I see it shining plain,
The happy highways where I went
And cannot come again.[5]— lines 5-8