Lyrics by Frank DiGiacomo and Julian R. Pace, drawn from Song, a poem by Walter de la Mare,
republished in America by Dover Publications in a collection called Songs of Childhood.

Photographs by Sherry Eckstein.

After Beauty again reluctantly refuses to marry the Beast, he asks that she please sing “a song of loneliness” for him. She takes up the lute, tunes it and sings.

 

 LYRICS
    Beauty
        0 for a moon to light me home!
        0 for a lanthorn green!
        For those sweet stars the Pleiades that glitter in the twilight trees;
        0 for a lovelorn taper! 0 for a lanthorn green!
 
        0 for a frock of tartan! 0 for clear, wild, grey eyes!
        For fingers light as violets, 'neath branches that the blackbird frets;
        0 for a thistly meadow! 0 for clear, wild, grey eyes!
 
        0 for a heart like almond boughs! 0 for sweet thoughts like rain!
        0 for first-love like fields of grey shut April-buds at break of day!
        0 for a sleep like music!
        For still dreams like rain, still dreams like rain!
        0 for a moon to light me home!