When coldness wraps this suffering clay

When coldness wraps this suffering clay,
  Ah! whither strays the immortal mind?
It cannot die, it cannot stay,
  But leaves its darken'd dust behind.
Then, unembodied, doth it trace
  By steps each planet's heavenly way?
Or fill at once the realms of space,
  A thing of eyes, that all survey?

Eternal, boundless, undecay'd,
  A thought unseen, but seeing all,
All, all in earth or skies display'd,
  Shall it survey, shall it recal:
Each fainter trace that memory holds
  So darkly of departed years,
In one broad glance the soul beholds,
  And all, that was, at once appears.

Before Creation peopled earth,
  Its eye shall roll through chaos back;
And where the farthest heaven had birth,
  The spirit trace its rising track.
And where the future mars or makes,
  Its glance dilate o'er all to be,
While sun is quench'd or system breaks,
  Fix'd in its own eternity.

Above or Love, Hope, Hate, or Fear,
  It lives all passionless and pure:
An age shall fleet like earthly year;
  Its years as moments shall endure.
Away, away, without a wing,
  O'er all, through all, its thoughts shall fly;
A nameless and eternal thing,
  Forgetting what it was to die.

by George Gordon Noel Byron, Lord Byron (1788-1824) , "When coldness wraps this suffering clay", from Hebrew Melodies, no. 20, published 1815

Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive)

by Isaac Nathan (1790-1864) , "When coldness wraps this suffering clay", published 1816 [duet for two sopranos with piano], from A Selection of Hebrew Melodies No. I, no. 20.

by Johann Karl Gottfried Loewe (1796-1869) , "Wohin, o Seele, wirst du eilen?", op. 13 (Hebräische Gesänge) no. 5 (1825), published 1826. [voice and piano]

Date added to the website: 2009-08-08.

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