by Thomas Campion (1567 - 1620)
Awake, awake, thou heavy sprite
Language: English
Awake, awake! thou heavy sprite That sleep’st the deadly sleep of sin! Rise now and walk the ways of light, ’Tis not too late yet to begin. Seek heaven early, seek it late; True Faith finds still an open gate. Get up, get up, thou leaden man! Thy track, to endless joy or pain, Yields but the model of a span: Yet burns out thy life’s lamp in vain! One minute bounds thy bane or bliss; Then watch and labour while time is.
Text Authorship:
- by Thomas Campion (1567 - 1620), "Awake, awake, thou heavy sprite" [author's text checked 1 time 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 Thomas Campion (1567 - 1620), "Awake, awake, thou heavy sprite", published c1613, from Two Bookes of Ayres - The First Booke, no. 16 [sung text checked 1 time]
Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):
- GER German (Deutsch) (Richard Flatter) , "Gebet", appears in Die Fähre, Englische Lyrik aus fünf Jahrhunderten, first published 1936
Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]
This text was added to the website: 2007-11-16
Line count: 12
Word count: 83