Annotation:Power of Beauty (The)
Back to Power of Beauty (The)
POWER OF BEAUTY, THE. English, Air (cut time). D Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AABBCCDD. The air is perhaps associated with the poem "The Power of Beauty" by Somersetshire poet Samuel Daniel, son of a teacher of music and tutor to the daughter and heir of the Earl of Cumberland, Lady Anne Clifford. "The Power of Beauty" was part of Daniel's larger work, "The Complaint of Rosamund." The first stanza goes:
Look, how a comet at the first appearing
Draws all men's eyes with wonder to behold it;
Or, as the saddest tale at sudden hearing
Makes silent, listening unto him that told it;
So did my speech when rubies did unfold it,
So did the balzing of my blush appear,
To amaze the world that holds such sights so dear.
Source for notated version:
Printed sources: Burke Thumoth (12 English and 12 Irish Airs with Variations), c. 1745; No. 1, pp. 2-3.
Recorded sources: