by Emily Brontë (1818 - 1848)

I did not sleep twas noon of day
Language: English 
I did not sleep twas noon of day
I watched the burning sunshine fall..
The long grass bending where I lay
The blue sky brooding over all

I heard the mellow hum of bees
And singing birds and sighing trees
And far away in woody dell
The music of the Sabbath bell

I did not dream remembrance still
Clasped round my heart its fetters chill
But I am sure the soul is free
To leave its clay a little while
Or how in exile misery
Could I have seen my county smile

In [ancient]1 fields my limbs were laid
With [ancient]1 turf beneath my head
My spirit wandered o'er that shore
Where nought but it may wander more

Yet if the soul can thus return
I need not and I will not mourn.
[The]2 mortal flesh you might debar
But not the eternal fire within.
[...]3

A heart that can forget him never
[Thought shut within a sighing]4 tomb
His name shall be for whom I bear
This long sustained and hopeless doom

And brighter in the hour of woe
Than in the blaze of victory's pride
That glory shedding star shall glow
For which we fought and bled and died.

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View original text (without footnotes)
Note: In the Fisk work, this is sung by Catherine
1 Bronte: "English"
2 Bronte: "My"
3 2 lines omitted by Fisk
4 Bronte: "Though shut within a silent"

Authorship:

Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive):


Researcher for this text: Terry Fisk

This text was added to the website: 2004-03-20
Line count: 31
Word count: 201