I saw a spirit standing, Man, Where thou dost stand an hour ago, And round his feet three rivers ran Of equal depth and equal flow A Golden Stream, and one like blood And one like sapphire, seemed to be But where they joined their triple flood It tumbled in [an inky]1 sea The spirit bent his dazzling gaze Down on that ocean's gloomy night, Then kindling all with sudden blaze, The glad deep sparkled wide and bright White as the sun, and far more fair That their divided sources were! And for that spirit Seer, I've watched and sought my lifetime long Sought him in Heaven, Hell, Earth and Air An endless search and always wrong! Had I but seen his glorious eye Once light the cloud surrounding me, I ne'er had raised this coward cry To cease to think and cease to me.
Visions from the Earth
Song Cycle by John Mitchell (b. 1941)
1. A vision  [sung text checked 1 time]
Authorship:
- by Emily Brontë (1818 - 1848)
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View original text (without footnotes)1 Mitchell: "a blackened"
Researcher for this page: Victoria Brago
2. Cold in the earth  [sung text not yet checked]
Cold in the earth, the deep snow piled above thee! Far, far removed, cold in the dreary grave! Have I forgot, my Only Love, to love thee, Severed at last by Time's all wearing wave? Cold in the earth, and [fifteen]1 wild Decembers From those brown hills have melted into spring Faithful [indeed the]2 spirit that remembers [After years]3 of change and suffering! Sweet love of youth, forgive if I forget thee While the World's tide is bearing me along; [Other desires and darker hopes beset me Hopes which obscure but cannot do thee wrong]4 No other [Sun]5 has lightened up my heaven; No [other Star]6 has ever shone for me; All my life's bliss from thy dear life was given all my life's bliss is in the grave with thee. But when the days of golden dreams had perished [Even]7 despair was powerless to destroy [Then I did learn how existence could be cherished Strengthened and fed without the aid of joy]4 Then did I check the tears of useless passion, Weaned my young soul from yearning after thine; [Sternly denied its burning wish to hasten Down to that tomb already more then mine]4 And even yet, I dare not let it languish Dare not indulge in Memory's rapturous pain; Once drinking deep of that [divinest]8 anguish, How could I seek the empty world again?
Authorship:
- by Emily Brontë (1818 - 1848), "Remembrance", appears in Poems by Currer, Ellis, and Acton Bell, first published 1846
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View original text (without footnotes)Note: in the Fisk work, this is sung by Heathcliff
1 Fisk: "eighteen"
2 Fisk: "indeed is the"
3 Fisk: "After such years"
4 omitted by Mitchell
5 Fisk: "light"
6 Fisk: "second morn"
7 Fisk: "And even"
8 Fisk: "divine"
Researcher for this page: Victoria Brago
3. To Imagination  [sung text checked 1 time]
When weary with the long day's care,
And earthly change from pain to pain,
And lost, and ready to despair,
Thy kind voice calls me back again -
O my true friend, I am not lone
While thou canst speak with such a tone!
But thou art ever there to bring
The hovering visions back and breathe
New glories o'er the blighted spring
And call a lovelier life from death,
And whisper with a voice divine
Of real worlds as bright as thine.
[ ... ]
Authorship:
- by Emily Brontë (1818 - 1848)
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Research team for this page: Victoria Brago , Malcolm Wren [Guest Editor]4. Come, walk with me  [sung text checked 1 time]
Come, walk with me, There's only thee To bless my spirit now Come, walk with me, There's only thee To bless my spirit now We used to love on winter nights To wander thru the snow; Can we not woo back our delights? The clouds rush dark and wild They fleck with shade our mountain heights And on the horizon rest at last The same as long ago. Come, walk with me There's only thee; We once were not so few, But Death has stolen our company He took them one by one and we Are left the only two; So closer do my feelings twine Because they have no stay but thine.
Authorship:
- by Emily Brontë (1818 - 1848)
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Researcher for this page: Victoria Brago5. Shall Earth no more inspire thee  [sung text checked 1 time]
Shall Earth no more inspire thee, Thou lonely dreamer now? Since passion may not fire thee, Shall nature cease to bow? Thy mind is ever moving In regions dark to thee; Recall its useless roving, Come back and dwell with me. I know my mountain breezes Enchant and soothe thee still I know my sunshine pleases Despite thy wayward will. When day with evening blending Sinks from the summer sky, I've seen thy spirit bending in fond idolatry I've watched thee ev'ry hour I know my mighty sway I know my magic pow'r To drive thy griefs away. Few hearts to mortals giv'n On earth so wildly fine Yet none would ask a Heav'n More like the Earth than thine Then let my winds carress thee Thy comrade let me be Since naught beside can bless thee, Return and dwell with me Return and dwell with me with me.
Authorship:
- by Emily Brontë (1818 - 1848)
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Researcher for this page: Victoria Brago6. Child of Delight!  [sung text checked 1 time]
Child of Delight! with sunbright hair And seablue, seadeep eyes. Spirit of bliss, what brings thee here Beneath these sullen skies? Thou shouldst live in eternal spring Where endless day is never dim. Why, seraph has thy erring wing Borne thee down to weep with him? 'Not from heaven am I descended I do not come to mingle tears. But sweet is day though with shadows blended And though clouded sweet are youthful years I, the image of light and gladness Saw and pitied that mournful boy Swore to take his gloomy sadness And give to him my beamy joy. Guardian angel he lacks no more; My watch will shield him now.' Child of delight! Child of delight! Is it Love which brings thee here?
Authorship:
- by Emily Brontë (1818 - 1848)
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Researcher for this page: Victoria Brago7. Stars  [sung text checked 1 time]
Ah! because the dazzling sun Restored my earth to joy Why, have you departed, every one, And left a desert sky? Thru the glorious night, your eyes Were gazing down in mine And with a full heart's thankful sighs I blessed that watch divine! I was at peace, and drank your beams As they were life to me Thought followed thought, star followed star Thru boundless regions on while one sweet influence near and far, Thrilled thru and proved us one. Why did the morning rise to break so great, so pure a spell And scorch with fire the tranquil cheek Where your cool radiance fell? O stars and dreams and Gentle Night O Night and stars return! And hide me from the hostile light That does not warm, but burn
Authorship:
- by Emily Brontë (1818 - 1848), "Stars", appears in Poems by Currer, Ellis, and Acton Bell, first published 1846
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View original text (without footnotes)1: omitted by Mitchell.
2: added by Mitchell.
Researcher for this page: Victoria Brago
8. The Night Wind  [sung text checked 1 time]
There it is! It wakes tonight sweet thoughts that will not die And feelings' fires flash all as bright as in the years gone by! I can tell by thine altered cheek, by thy kindled gaze, And by the words thou scarce do speak How wildly fancy plays. I could swear the glorious wind has swept the world aside has dashed its memory from thy mind Like foambells from the tide And thou art now a spirit pouring Thy presence into all The essence of the tempest's roaring, And of the tempest's fall A universal influence Free from thy control A principle of life intense, Sweeping from pole, to pole.
Authorship:
- by Emily Brontë (1818 - 1848)
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Researcher for this page: Victoria Brago9. How Clear She Shines  [sung text checked 1 time]
How clear she shines! How quietly I lie beneath her [silver]1 light While Heaven and Earth are whispering to me "Tomorrow wake, but dream tonight." [Yes fancy come, my spirit love! These throbbing temples, softly kiss, And bend my lonely couch above And bring me rest.]2 While gazing on the stars that glow Above me in that stormless sea I long to hope that all the woe Creation knows is held in thee! And this shall be my dream tonight I'll think the heav'n of glorious spheres Is rolling on its course of light In endless bliss, through endless years. [I'll think there's not one world above Far as these straining eyes can see Where wisdom ever laughed at Love Or Virtue crouched to Infamy Where pleasure still will lead to wrong And helpless reason warn in vain And truth is weak, and treachery strong And joy the shortest path to pain And peace the lethargy of grief And hope a phantom of the soul And life a labour void and brief And death the despot of the whole]3
Authorship:
- by Emily Brontë (1818 - 1848), "How clear she shines", from Poems by Currer, Ellis, and Acton Bell, first published 1846
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View original text (without footnotes)Note: in the Fisk work, this is sung by Edgar
1 Fisk: "guardian"
2 omitted by Fisk
3 omitted by Mitchell
Researcher for this page: Victoria Brago
10. The Messenger  [sung text checked 1 time]
He comes with western winds, with evening's wandering airs, With that clear dusk of heaven that brings the thickest stars; Winds take a pensive tone, and stars a tender fire And visions rise and change which kill me with desire Desire for nothing known in my maturer years, When joy grew mad with awe at counting future tears; But first, a hush of peace, a soundless calm descends; The struggle of distress and fierce impatience ends; Mute music soothes my breast, unuttered harmony That I could never dream till earth was lost to me Then dawns the Invisible, the Unseen its truth reveals; My outward sense is gone, my inward essence feels Its wings are almost free, its home, its harbor found; Measuring the gulf, it stoops and dares the final bound! O dreadful is the check, intense the agony When the ear begins to hear and the eye begins to see When the pulse begins to throb, the brain to think again, The soul to feel the flesh and the flesh to feel the chain!
Authorship:
- by Emily Brontë (1818 - 1848)
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Researcher for this page: Victoria Brago