A Dream
COMPOSER'S NOTE
Dedicated to my friend, bass-baritone Kerry Wilkerson, A Dream is a setting of Edgar Allan Poe's poem of the same name. Written as a sonnet, the text expresses a profound yearning for a love long lost. It is, at once, emotive and melancholic.
THE TEXT
In visions of the dark night
I have dreamed of joy departed—
But a waking dream of life and light
Hath left me broken-hearted.
Ah! what is not a dream by day
To him whose eyes are cast
On things around him with a ray
Turned back upon the past?
That holy dream—that holy dream,
While all the world were chiding,
Hath cheered me as a lovely beam
A lonely spirit guiding.
What though that light, thro' storm and night,
So trembled from afar—
What could there be more purely bright
In Truth's day-star?
Join the Mailing List
Join the mailing list and get the latest on Henry's composition projects, concerts, recordings, and much more, direct to your inbox.
Your email will never be shared, and you can unsubscribe anytime.