Through the ivory gate

I had a dream last night
Dream of a friend that is dead
He came with dawn's first light
And stood beside my bed:
And as he there did stand,
With gesture fine and fair,
He passed a wan white hand
Over my tumbled hair,
Saying: "No friendship dieth
With death of any day,
No true friendship lieth
Cold with lifeless clay.

"Though our boyhood's playtime,
Be gone with summer's breath,
No friendship fades with Maytime
No friendship dies with death."
Then answer had I made
But that the rapture deep
Did hold me, half afraid
To mar that rose of sleep
So with closed eyes I lay,
Lord of the vision fair;
And when 'twas perfect day
Only the day was there.

Submitted by Ted Perry

Authorship

• by Julian Sturgis (1848 - 1904) [ author's text not yet checked against a primary source]

Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive)

• by Charles Hubert Hastings Parry, Sir (1848 - 1918), "Through the ivory gate", 1895, published 1895, from the collection English Lyrics, Third Set, no. 5. [
   text verified 1 time
  ]

Text added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.

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