This piece radiates sadness and beauty.
The text draws from two poems published in 1926 by Mabel Simpson: “The Dew Upon” and “Lament.” These poems are “radiant in their simplicity, undecorated outpourings and musings of a highly inward spirit, intuitive to a degree, preoccupied with the divested self and with the barest and most fundamental of spiritual values.” The Dew Upon / Lament is an original choral work for high school, community, or university choir.
Performed here by the Rocky Mountain Chamber Choir - Virtual Singers.
The Dew Upon / Lament
THE DEW UPON
The dew upon
The leaf now lies,
Now to her home
The sparrow flies,
And vaster are the embodied skies.
There is a mist
On every blade,
Sleep wanders where
The swallow played,
Pale shadow over all is laid.
Oh, grief could leave
No burden now
Upon the drifting
Willow bough,
For what has been
And what is not
Are both within this peace forgot.
LAMENT
From twig and bough
The leaves have blown;
From every branch
The birds have flown;
And voices, voices there are none.
Sleep holds the meadow;
And the hill,
Close wrapped in dreams,
Is warm and still.
The wan winds wander
Where they will.
Now in the dust
The petals lie
Of many a flower
Born to die.
And lonely, lonely is the sky.