Going to Heaven! | Going to Heaven!

Going to Heaven!

Language: English

Our translations: CAT FRE GER ITA

Going to Heaven!
I don't know when,
Pray do not ask me how, -
Indeed I'm too astonished
To think of answering you!
Going to Heaven! -
How dim it sounds!
And yet it will be done
As sure as flocks go home at night
Unto the shepherd's arm!

Perhaps you're going too!
Who knows?
If you should get there first
Save just a little place for me
Close to the two I lost!
The smallest "robe" will fit me,
And just a bit of "crown";
For you know we do not mind our dress
When we are going home. 

 I'm glad I don't believe it
For it would stop my breath,
And I'd like to look a little more
At such a curious earth!
I am glad they did believe it
Whom I have never found
Since the mighty autumn afternoon
I left them in the ground.

Available sung texts: ← What is this?

• A. Copland

About the headline (FAQ)

View text with all available footnotes

Text Authorship:

by Emily Dickinson (1830 - 1886), no title, appears in Poems by Emily Dickinson, first published 1891 [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 Aaron Copland (1900 - 1990), "Going to Heaven!", c1949, published 1951 [ mezzo-soprano and piano ], from Twelve Poems of Emily Dickinson, no. 11 [sung text checked 1 time]
by Valerie Saalbach (b. 1951), "Going to Heaven!" [ voice and piano ], from Poems of Emily Dickinson, no. 4 [sung text not yet checked]

Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 27
Word count: 147