by Emily Brontë (1818 - 1848)
Light up the halls tis closing day
Language: English
Light up the halls tis closing day I'm drear and lone and far away Cold blows on my breast the north winds bitter sigh And oh, my couch is bleak beneath the rainy sky Light up the halls and think not of me That face is absent now thou hast hated so to see Bright be thine eyes undimmed their dazzling shine For never, never more will they encounter mine The desert moor is dark there is tempest in the air I have breathed my only wish in one last one burning prayer A prayer that would come forth although it lingered long That set on fire my heart but died upon my tongue And now, it shall be done before the morning rise I will not watch the sun ascend in yonder skies One task alone remains thy pictured face to view And then I go to prove if God at least be true [ ...]1 Oh could I see thy lids weighed down in cheerless woe Too full to hide the tears too stern to overflow Oh could I know thy soul with equal grief was torn This fate might be endured this anguish might be borne [...]2 I do not need thy breath to cool my death-cold brow But go to that far land where she is shining now Tell her my latest wish tell her my dreary doom Say my pangs are past but hers are yet to come Vain words vain frenzied thoughts No ear can hear my call Lost in the vacant air my frantic curses fall And could she see me now perchance her lip would smile Would smile in careless pride and utter scorn the while! And yet for all her hate each parting glance would tell A stronger passion breathed burned in this last farewell Unconquered in my soul the Tyrant rules me still Life bows to my control but love I cannot kill!
About the headline (FAQ)
View original text (without footnotes)Note: in the Fisk work, this is sung by Heathcliff
1 8 lines omitted by Fisk
2 4 lines omitted by Fisk
Authorship:
- by Emily Brontë (1818 - 1848) [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 , "Light up the halls tis closing day", published 2002 [voice, piano], from Wuthering Heights, no. 14. [text verified 1 time]
Researcher for this page: Terry Fisk
This text was added to the website: 2004-03-22
Line count: 34
Word count: 323