1972
A Certain Slant of Light
Composed by 
Joseph Turrin
Joseph Turrin Text by 
Emily Dickinson
Emily Dickinson "A Certain Slant of Light" is a song by Joseph Turrin setting the poetry of Emily Dickinson.
Text
There’s a certain slant of light (poem 31)
by Emily Dickinson
There’s a certain slant of light,
On winter afternoons,
That oppresses, like the weight
Of cathedral tunes.
Heavenly hurt it gives us ;
We can find no scar,
But internal difference
Where the meanings are.
None may teach it anything,
‘T is the seal, despair,—
An imperial affliction
Sent us of the air.
When it comes, the landscape listens,
Shadows hold their breath ;
When it goes, ‘t is like the distance
On the look of death.