[Parting is hard, and death is terrible;]1
I seem to walk through a deep valley,
far from the light of day, alone and comfortless!
The damps of death fall thick upon me!
Horrors stare me in the face!
I look behind, there is no returning;
Death follows after me;
I walk in regions of Death, where no tree is;
without a lantern to direct my steps,
without a staff to support me.

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¹ omitted by Davies; other changes may exist not noted.

Text Authorship:

• by William Blake (1757 - 1827), no title, appears in The Couch of Death, an excerpt from a longer prose section [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 (Henry) Walford Davies, Sir (1869 - 1941), "The Couch of Death", published c1934 [ bass, soprano, chorus, strings, and organ ad libitum ], from cantata Ah! Gentle May I lay me down, no. 1, London: Oxford University Press ; Welsh National Council of Music [sung text not yet checked]

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

This text was added to the website: 2010-04-15
Line count: 10
Word count: 73