by Emily Brontë (1818 - 1848)
Fair sinks the summer evening now
Language: English
Available translation(s): CHI
Fair sinks the summer evening now In softened glory round my home The sky upon its holy brow Wears not a cloud that speaks of gloom The old tower shrined in golden light Looks down on the descending sun So gently evening blends with night You scarce could say that day is done And this is just the joyous hour When we were wont to burst away To 'scape from labour's tyrant power And cheerfully go out to play Then why is all so sad and lone? No merry footstep on the stair No laugh no heart awaking tone But voiceless silence everywhere I've wandered round our garden ground And still it seemed at every turn That I should greet approaching feet And words upon the breezes borne In vain they will not come today And mornings beams will rise as drear But tell me are they gone for aye Our sun blinks through the mists of care? Ah no reproving Hope doth say Departed joys 'tis fond to mourn When every storm that hides their ray Prepares a more [divine]1 return
About the headline (FAQ)
View original text (without footnotes)Note: in the Fisk work, this is sung by Catherine
1 Bronte: "defiant"
Authorship:
- by Emily Brontë (1818 - 1848) [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 Terry Fisk , "Fair sinks the summer evening now", published 2002 [ voice, piano ], from Wuthering Heights, no. 21 [sung text checked 1 time]
Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):
- CHI Chinese (中文) [singable] (Dr Huaixing Wang) , subtitle: "夏日黄昏", copyright © 2024, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
Researcher for this page: Terry Fisk
This text was added to the website: 2004-03-22
Line count: 28
Word count: 182