A Child Asleep
A Child Asleep è una canzone, con versi tratti da una poesia scritta da Elizabeth Barrett Browning. Fu messa in musica dal compositore inglese Edward Elgar nel dicembre 1909 e pubblicata nel 1910 da Novello.[1] Era stata pubblicata per la prima volta dalla Browning nel 1840.[2]
È dedicata ad Anthony Goetz, figlio di Ludovic Goetz e Muriel Foster, una delle cantanti preferite di Elgar e sua amica personale.[1]
Versi
How he sleepeth!
Vision unto vision calleth,
While the young child dreameth on.
Fair, O dreamer, thee befalleth
With the glory thou hast won!
Darker wert thou in the garden, yestermorn, by summer sun.
We should see the spirits [rising]
Round thee,—were the clouds away.
'Tis the child-heart draws them, singing
In the silent-seeming clay.
Singing!—stars that seem the mutest, go in music music all the way.
Softly, softly! make no noises!
Now he lieth [still] and dumb.
Now he hears the angels' voices
Folding silence in the room.
Now he muses deep the meaning of the Heaven-words as they come.
He is harmless—[we] are sinful.
[We] are troubled—he, at ease.
From his slumber, virtue winful
Floweth outward with increase.
Dare not bless him! but be blessèd by his peace—and go in peace.[3]
Stanza I, riga 1a; stanze IV, V, IX, e XII
Incisioni
Note
- ^ a b Michael Kennedy, Portrait of Elgar, Third, Oxford University Press, 1987, p. 350, ISBN 0-19-284017-7.
- ^ Elizabeth Barrett Browning e Harriet Waters Preston, The Complete Poetical Works of Mrs. Browning, Houghton Mifflin, 1900, pp. 155–156.
- ^ Text taken from: (EN) Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Poems, vol. 2, 4th, London, Chapman & Hall, 1856, pp. 150-153., showing Elgar's alterations in [brackets], according to: How he sleepeth! having drunken (Browning, set by Edward Elgar, Sir, Rudolph T. Werther), su lieder.net. URL consultato il 30 dicembre 2019.
Bibliografia
- (EN) Percy M. Young, Elgar O.M: a study of a musician, Purnell; Book Club ed., 1º gennaio 1973.
Collegamenti esterni
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