by Emily Brontë (1818 - 1848)
The night was dark yet winter breathed
Language: English
The night was dark yet winter breathed With softened sighs on heaven's shore And though its wind repining breathed It chained the snow swollen streams no more How deep into the wilderness My horse has strayed I cannot say But neither morsel nor caress Would urge him further on the way So loosening from his neck the rein I set my worn companion free And billowy hill and boundless plain Full soon departed him from me The sullen clouds lay all unbroken And blackening round the horizon drear But still they gave no certain token Of heavy rain or tempests near I paused confounded and distressed Down in the heath my limbs I threw Yet wilder as I longed for rest More wakeful heart and eyelids grew It was about the middle night And under such a starless dome When gliding from the mountains height I saw a shadowy figure come ... This is my home where whirlpools blow Where snowdrifts round my path are swelling 'Tis many a year 'tis long ago Since I beheld another dwelling ... The shepherd has died on the mountainside But my ready aid was near him then I led him back o'er the hidden track And gave him to his native glen When tempests roar on the lonely shore I light my beacon with sea-weeds dry And it flings its fire through the darkness dire And gladdens the sailor's hopeless eye ... And deem thou not that quite forgot My mercy will forsake me now I bring thee care and not despair Abasement but not overthrow To a silent home thy foot may come And years may follow of toilsome pain But yet I swear by that burning tear The loved shall meet on its hearth again
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View text with all available footnotesNote: in the Fisk work, this is sung by Heathcliff (stanzas 1-6) and Catherine (stanzas 7-11)
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 , "The night was dark yet winter breathed", published 2002 [voice, piano], from Wuthering Heights, no. 48. [text verified 1 time]
Researcher for this page: Terry Fisk
This text was added to the website: 2004-03-22
Line count: 47
Word count: 294