Advance Democracy | Across the darkened city

by Randall Carline Swingler (1909 - 1967)

Advance Democracy

Language: English

Our translations: CAT

Across the darkened city
The frosty searchlights creep
Alert for the first marauder
To steal upon our sleep.

We see the sudden headlines
Float on the muttering tide
We hear them warn and threaten
And wonder what they hide.

There are whispers across tables,
Talks in a shutter'd room.
The price on which they bargain
Will be a people's doom.

There's a roar of war in the factories
And idle hands on the street
And Europe held in nightmare
By the thud of marching feet.

Now sinks the sun of surety,
The shadows growing tall
Of the big bosses plotting
Their biggest coup of all.

Is there no strength to save us?
No power we can trust
Before our lives and liberties
Are powder'd into dust.

Time to arise Democracy
Time to rise up and cry
That what our fathers fought for
We'll not allow to die.

Time to resolve divisions,
Time to renew our pride,
Time to decide
Time to burst our house of glass.

Rise as a single being
In one resolve arrayed:
Life shall be for the people
That's by the people made.

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Text Authorship:

by Randall Carline Swingler (1909 - 1967) [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 (Edward) Benjamin Britten (1913 - 1976), "Advance Democracy", published 1938 [ chorus a cappella ], Boosey & Hawkes [sung text checked 1 time]

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

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

This text was added to the website: 2014-06-23
Line count: 36
Word count: 186