Twilight (Henry Thomas Smart)
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- Editor: David Anderson (submitted 2023-12-08). Score information: Letter, 8 pages, 413 kB Copyright: Personal
- Edition notes:
General Information
Title: Twilight
Composer: Henry Thomas Smart
Lyricist: Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Number of voices: 4vv Voicing: SATB
Genre: Secular, Partsong
Language: English
Instruments: A cappella
First published: 1876 Stanley Lucas, Weber & Co.
Description:
External websites:
Original text and translations
English text
The twilight is sad and cloudy,
The wind blows wild and free,
And like the wings of sea-birds
Flash the white caps of the sea.
But in the fisherman’s cottage
There shines a ruddier light,
And a little face at the window
Peers out into the night.
Close, close it is pressed to the window,
As if those childish eyes
Were looking into the darkness
To see some form arise.
And a woman’s waving shadow
Is passing to and fro,
Now rising to the ceiling,
Now bowing and bending low.
What tale do the roaring ocean,
And the night-winds, bleak and wild,
As they beat at the crazy casement,
Tell to that little child?
And why do the roaring ocean,
And the night-wind, wild and bleak,
As they beat at the heart of the mother
Drive the color from her cheek?