A Child Asleep
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}
"A Child Asleep" is a song, with lyrics from a poem written by Elizabeth Barrett Browning. It was set to music by the English composer Edward Elgar in December 1909 and published in 1910 by Novello.{{cite book |last=Kennedy |first=Michael |author-link=Michael Kennedy (music critic) |date=1987 |title= Portrait of Elgar |edition=Third |publisher=Oxford University Press |page=350 |isbn=0-19-284017-7}} It was first published by Browning in 1840.{{cite book |last1=Browning |first1=Elizabeth Barrett |last2=Preston |first2=Harriet Waters |date=1900 |title=The Complete Poetical Works of Mrs. Browning |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NBMZAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA155 |publisher=Houghton Mifflin |pages=155–156}}
It is dedicated to Anthony Goetz, the son of Ludovic Goetz and Muriel Foster, a favourite singer and personal friend of Elgar.
Lyrics
{{blockquote|
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.
|source=Stanza I, line 1a; stanzas IV, V, IX, and XII}}
References
{{Reflist}}
- Percy Young, Elgar O.M.
External links
- {{IMSLP2|work=A Child Asleep (Elgar, Edward)|cname=A Child Asleep}}
{{Edward Elgar}}
{{Elizabeth Barrett Browning}}
{{authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Child Asleep, A}}
Category:Songs by Edward Elgar
Category:Poetry by Elizabeth Barrett Browning
{{Poem-stub}}