Safe in their alabaster chambers | Safe in their alabaster chambers

Safe in their alabaster chambers

Language: English

Our translations: GER

Safe in their alabaster chambers,
Untouched by morning and untouched by noon,
Sleep the meek members of the resurrection,
Rafter of satin, and roof of stone.

Light laughs the breeze in her castle of sunshine;
Babbles the bee in a stolid ear;
Pipe the sweet birds in ignorant cadence, -
Ah, what sagacity perished here!

Grand go the years in the crescent above them;
Worlds scoop their arcs, and firmaments row,
Diadems drop and Doges surrender,
Soundless as dots on a disk of snow.

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Text Authorship:

by Emily Dickinson (1830 - 1886), no title, appears in Poems of Emily Dickinson, first published 1890 [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 Arthur Farwell (1872 - 1952), "Safe in their alabaster chambers", op. 105 no. 2 [sung text not yet checked]
by Brian Holmes (b. 1946), "Safe in their alabaster chambers" [ soprano, chorus, children's chorus, and orchestra ], from Amherst Requiem, no. 2 [sung text checked 1 time]
by Elaine Hugh-Jones (b. 1927), "Members of the resurrection", 1979 [ voice and piano ], from Three American Songs, no. 2 [sung text not yet checked]
by Bain Murray (b. 1926), "Safe in their alabaster chambers", published 1968 [ SATB chorus, horn, and violoncello or organ ] [sung text not yet checked]
by Daniel Rogers Pinkham (1923 - 2006), "Safe in their alabaster chambers", published 1974 [ medium voice and electronic tape ], from Safe in their Alabaster Chambers [sung text not yet checked]

Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 12
Word count: 83