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by Paul Laurence Dunbar (1872 - 1906)

Night is for sorrow and dawn is for joy
Language: English 
Choose for Diff
Night is for sorrow and dawn is for joy,
Chasing the troubles that fret and annoy;
Darkness for sighing and daylight for song,—
Cheery and chaste the strain, heartfelt and strong.
All the night through, though I moan in the dark,
I wake in the morning to sing with the lark.

Deep in the midnight the rain whips the leaves,
Softly and sadly the wood-spirit grieves.
But when the first hue of dawn tints the sky,
I shall shake out my wings like the birds and be dry;
And though, like the rain-drops, I grieved through the dark,
I shall wake in the morning to sing with the lark.

On the high hills of heaven, some morning to be,
Where the rain shall not grieve thro' the leaves of the tree,
There my heart will be glad for the pain I have known,
For my hand will be clasped in the hand of mine own;
And though life has been hard and death's pathway been dark,
I shall wake in the morning to sing with the lark.

About the headline (FAQ)

Confirmed with Paul Laurence Dunbar, The Complete Poems of Paul Laurence Dunbar, New York : Dodd, Mead and Company, 1913


Text Authorship:

  • by Paul Laurence Dunbar (1872 - 1906), "With The Lark" [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 Laura Farnell (b. 1975), "Sing with the Lark", copyright © 2013 [ satb chorus and piano and flute ad libitum ], JEHMS
        Publisher: Alliance Music Publication [external link]  [sung text not yet checked]

Researcher for this page: Joost van der Linden [Guest Editor]

This text was added to the website: 2026-09-04
Line count: 18
Word count: 177

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