A dream (Blake, set by E. Button, W. Bolcom, D. Smirnov, P. Irby) (The Lied and Art Song Texts Page: Texts and Translations to Lieder, mélodies, canzoni, and other classical vocal music)


Once a dream did weave a shade
O'er my angel-guarded bed,
That an emmet lost its way
Where on grass methought I lay.

Troubled, wildered, and forlorn,
Dark, benighted, travel-worn,
Over many a tangle spray,
All heart-broke, I heard her say:

"Oh my children! do they cry,
Do they hear their father sigh?
Now they look abroad to see,
Now return and weep for me."

Pitying, I dropped a tear:
But I saw a glow-worm near,
Who replied, "What wailing wight
Calls the watchman of the night?

"I am set to light the ground,
While the beetle goes his round:
Follow now the beetle's hum;
Little wanderer, hie thee home!"

Authorship

William Blake (1757-1827)

Songs of Innocence and Experience

Songs of Innocence

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

William Bolcom (1938-)

Songs of Innocence

(Henry) Elliot Button (1861-?)

Songs of Innocence

Paul A. Irby

Three Songs of Innocence

Dmitri Nikolaevich Smirnov (1948-)

The Innocence of Experience

Available translations (or transliterations, if applicable):

RUS

Russian

Added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.

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