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by Paul Laurence Dunbar (1872 - 1906)

He had his dream
Language: English 
He had his dream, and all through life,
Worked up to it through toil and strife.
Afloat fore'er before his eyes,
It colored for him all his skies:
The storm-cloud dark
Above his bark,
The calm and listless vault of blue
Took on its hopeful hue,
It tinctured every passing beam --
He had his dream.

He labored hard and failed at last,
His sails too weak to bear the blast,
The raging tempests tore away
And sent his beating bark astray.
But what cared he
For wind or sea!
He said, "The tempest will be short,
My bark will come to port."
He saw through every cloud a gleam --
He had his dream.

Text Authorship:

  • by Paul Laurence Dunbar (1872 - 1906) [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 Gary Bachlund (b. 1947), "He had his dream", 2009 [ medium voice and piano ] [sung text checked 1 time]
  • by Adolphus Cunningham Hailstork (b. 1941), "He had his Dream", 1994, from Common Ground: An Operatic Songfest, no. 10 [sung text not yet checked]

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

This text was added to the website: 2009-11-22
Line count: 20
Word count: 113

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