by Emily Brontë (1818 - 1848)
High waving heather, beneath stormy...
Language: English
High waving heather, [beneath]1 stormy blasts bending, Midnight and moonlight and bright shining stars; Darkness and glory rejoicingly [blending]2, Earth rising to heaven and heaven descending, Man's spirit away from its [deep]3 dungeon sending, Bursting the fetters and breaking the bars. All down the mountain sides, wild forests lending One mighty voice to the lifegiving wind; Rivers their banks in the jubilee rending, Fast thru the valleys a reckless course wending, Wider and deeper their valleys extending, Leaving a desolate desert behind. Shining and lowering and swelling and dying Changing forever from midnight to noon; Roaring like thunder like soft music sighing, Shadows on shadows advancing and flying, Lightning-bright flashes the deep gloom defying, Coming as swiftly and fading as soon.
About the headline (FAQ)
View original text (without footnotes)Note: in the Fisk work, this is sung by Heathcliff
1 Fisk: "'neath"
2 Fisk: "blended"
3 Fisk: "drear"
Text Authorship:
- by Emily Brontë (1818 - 1848), appears in Poems by Charlotte, Emily, and Anne Brontë Now for the First Time Printed, first published 1902 [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 John Woods Duke (1899 - 1984), "On the moors", 1970, published 1977 [ mezzo-soprano and piano ], from Six Songs on Poems by Emily Brontë, no. 4, Southern/NY [sung text not yet checked]
- by Terry Fisk , no title, published 2002 [ voice, piano ], from Wuthering Heights, no. 42 [sung text checked 1 time]
- by John Pierre Herman Joubert (1927 - 2019), "Storm", published 1971 [ high voice and piano ], from Six Poems of Emily Brontë [sung text not yet checked]
- by Joan Littlejohn (b. 1937), "High waving heather, 'neath stormy blasts bending", 1967-71, first performed 1972 [ mezzo-soprano and piano ], from The Heights of Haworth [sung text not yet checked]
- by John Mitchell (b. 1941), "Celebration", op. 24 no. 5 (1977), from The Earth, the Wind, and the Sky, no. 5 [sung text checked 1 time]
Researcher for this page: Victoria Brago
This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 18
Word count: 121