Swimming Over London
Bob Chilcott (b. 1955)
A woman is swimming over London,
A fox turns up his face to see her pass,
There are blackbirds in the sleeping streets,
A pear tree, luminous with blossom:
It's the dream she always has,
The dream where she's touching a cloud –
The night is a tide she is pulled by
While a taxicab slumbers underneath,
And a robin is a fish who sings
From a treetop of coral below her:
It's the dream she always has, the dream where she's dancing through air –
Aerials point like signposts
Until all the houses are gone,
And fields give way to a beach
Where the ocean is calling her name:
It's the dream she always has,
The dream where she's swimming over London –
Where she sings to the stars like a mermaid
And darkness is a murmur in her hair.
“Swimming Over London” was performed by tenor Jack Byrom and the Houston Chamber Choir at their 2018-2019 season’s “This Is Why I Sing.”
