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by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807 - 1882)

Loud he sang the psalm of David!
Language: English 
Loud he sang the psalm of David!
He, a Negro and enslaved,
Sang of Israel's victory,
Sang of Zion, bright and free. 

In that hour, when night is calmest,
Sang he [from]1 the Hebrew Psalmist,
In a voice so sweet and clear
That I could not choose but hear, 

Songs of triumph, and ascriptions,
Such as reached the swart Egyptians,
When upon the Red Sea coast
Perished Pharaoh and his host.

And the voice of his devotion
Filled my soul with strange emotion;
For its tones by turns were glad,
Sweetly solemn, wildly sad. 

Paul and Silas, in their prison,
Sang of Christ, the Lord arisen.
And an earthquake's arm of might
Broke their dungeon-gates at night. 

But, alas! what holy angel
Brings the Slave this glad evangel?
And what earthquake's arm of might
Breaks his dungeon-gates at night?

Available sung texts:   ← What is this?

•   S. Coleridge-Taylor 

S. Coleridge-Taylor sets stanzas 1-2, 4-6

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View original text (without footnotes)
1: Coleridge-Taylor: "of"

Text Authorship:

  • by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807 - 1882), "The Slave singing at midnight", appears in Poems on Slavery, first published 1842 [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 Samuel Coleridge-Taylor (1875 - 1912), "Loud he sang the Psalm of David", op. 54 no. 3, stanzas 1-2,4-6 [chorus and orchestra or piano], from Three Choral Ballads, no. 3. [ sung text checked 1 time]

Researcher for this page: Andrew Schneider [Guest Editor]

This text was added to the website: 2017-05-13
Line count: 24
Word count: 139

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