Hymn to the Night

I heard the trailing garments of the Night
Sweep through her marble halls!
I saw her sable skirts all fringed with light
From the celestial walls!

I felt her presence, by its spell of might,
Stoop o'er me from above;
The calm, majestic presence of the Night,
As of the one I love.

I heard the sounds of sorrow and delight,
The manifold, soft chimes,
That fill the haunted chambers of the Night
Like some old poet's rhymes.

From the cool cisterns of the midnight air
My spirit drank repose;
The fountain of perpetual peace flows there,--
From those deep cisterns flows.

O holy Night! from thee I learn to bear
What man has borne before!
Thou layest thy finger on the lips of Care,
And they complain no more.

Peace!  Peace!  Orestes-like I breathe this prayer!
Descend with broad-winged flight,
The welcome, the thrice-prayed for, the most fair,
The best-beloved Night!

by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807-1882) , "Hymn to the Night", from Voices of the Night, published 1839

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

by Cecil Burleigh (1885-1980) , "I heard the trailing garments of the night", op. 32 no. 4, published 1917. [voice and piano]
by Louis Campbell-Tipton (1877-1921) , "Hymn to the Night", published 1910. [voice and piano]
by Richard Frank Donovan (1891-1970) , "Hymn to the Night", published 1947. [SSA chorus a cappella]
by Bernard Farebrother , "Hymn to the Night" [voice, piano, and violoncello ad libitum]
by Marianne Genet (1876-?) , "Hymn to the Night", published 1934. [SATB chorus and piano]
by Stephen Ralph Glover (1812-1870) , "Hymn to the Night", published 1856-62. [duet]
by Richard Lane , "A Hymn to the Night", published 1962. [SATB chorus and piano]
by William Charles MacFarlane (1870-1945) , "Hymn to the Night", published 1933. [tenor and four-part men's chorus a cappella]
by A. Barrington Orr , "Hymn to the Night" [voice and piano]
by Silas Gamaliel Pratt (1846-1916) , "O Holy Night", published 1883.
by Francis (Frank) Romer (1810-1889) , "Beloved Night" [voice and piano]
by Clarence T. Steele , "I heard the trailing garments of the night", published 1892.
by Henry Stevens , "I heard the trailing garments of the night" [voice and piano]
by Robert E. Ward (1917-) , "Hymn to the Night", published 1979 [choral symphony: soprano, baritone, mixed chorus, optional narrator, and orchestra], from Fifth Symphony: Canticles of America
by Joseph Wood (1915-?) , "Hymn to the Night", 1957. [TTBB chorus a cappella]

Date added to the website: 2008-06-13.

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