Under the wide and starry sky
Dig the grave and let me lie;
Glad did I live and gladly die,
And I laid me down with a will.

Here may the winds about me blow,
Here the sea may come and go
Here lies peace  forevermo'
And the heart for aye shall be still.

This be the verse you grave for me:
"Here he lies where he longed to be;
Home is the sailor, home from sea,
And the hunter home from the hill."

Note: Steele changes "longed" to "long'd" in the last stanza.

Composition:

Set to music by Charles Edward Ives (1874 - 1954), "Requiem", published 1935

Text Authorship:

• by Robert Louis Stevenson (1850 - 1894), "Requiem", appears in Underwoods, first published 1887

See other settings of this text.

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

• GER German (Deutsch) [singable] (Walter A. Aue) , "Grabschrift", copyright © 2010, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
• ITA Italian (Italiano) (Ferdinando Albeggiani) , "Requiem", copyright © 2005, (re)printed on this website with kind permission

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 12
Word count: 84