1946


Lullaby for a dark hour

Composed by Gardner Read

Three Songs for Mezzo-Soprano, op. 68 Song Collection


"Lullaby for a dark hour" is the first song from Gardner Read's Three Songs for Mezzo-Soprano, op. 68 song cycle.

Text

Lullaby for a dark hour

by Alfred Kreymborg

 

O hearts that are heavy with earth,     

Come out from under.     

Let the world thunder away or pass overhead     

with the dead of another day.     

And if you must beat with the times     

since the times are yours.     

Follow the course of a river, the source of the seas,     

or resign yourselves to the skies.     

Nature is older and wiser than you’ll ever be,     

And nothing you may hide from her can make her weep.     

For she has a star for you where the children sleep.

Records

1999

Gardner Read: The Art of Song

William Blake, Frances Frost, James Joyce, Gardner Read, Henry Russell, Rabindranath Tagore, Jean Starr Untermeyer