by Emily Dickinson (1830 - 1886)
Adrift! A little boat adrift!
Language: English
Adrift! A little boat adrift! And night is coming down! Will no one guide a little boat Unto the nearest town? So sailors say, on yesterday, Just as the dusk was brown, One little boat gave up its strife, And gurgled down and down. But angels say, on yesterday, Just as the dawn was red, One little boat o'erspent with gales Retrimmed its masts, redecked its sails Exultant, onward sped!
About the headline (FAQ)
Confirmed with Poems by Emily Dickinson. Third Series, ed by Mabel Loomis Todd, Boston: Roberts Brothers, 1896.
Text Authorship:
- by Emily Dickinson (1830 - 1886), no title, written c1858, appears in Poems: Third Series, in 4. Time and Eternity, no. 47, first published 1896 [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 Libby Larsen (b. 1950), "Adrift! A little boat adrift!", 1999 [ satb chorus a cappella ], from By a departing light, no. 4 [sung text not yet checked]
- by Daniel Rogers Pinkham (1923 - 2006), "A little boat adrift", from Called Home, no. 1 [sung text not yet checked]
Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):
- FRE French (Français) (Guy Laffaille) , copyright © 2009, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
- GER German (Deutsch) (Bertram Kottmann) , "Es treibt umher! Ein kleines Boot!", copyright © 2016, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]
This text was added to the website: 2007-09-21
Line count: 13
Word count: 70