
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:
- by Emily Brontë (1818 - 1848), no title [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 Terry Fisk , "I did not sleep twas noon of day", published 2002 [voice, piano], from Wuthering Heights, no. 5. [text verified 1 time]
Researcher for this text: Terry Fisk
This text was added to the website: 2004-03-20
Line count: 31
Word count: 201