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.”