The Morning Comes
A setting from William Blake's America: A Prophecy. Composed in 2004.
Instrumentation: Soprano and piano
Duration: 6 min.
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America: A Prophecy [Plate 6]
The morning comes, the night decays, the watchmen leave their stations;
The grave is burst, the spices shed, the linen wrapped up;
The bones of death, the cov'ring clay, the sinews shrunk and dry'd,
Reviving shake, inspiring move, breathing! awakening!
Spring like redeemed captives when their bonds and bars are burst.
Let the slave grinding at the mill run out into the field:
Let him look up into the heavens and laugh in the bright air;
Let the inchained soul shut up in darkness and in sighing,
Whose face has never seen a smile in thirty weary years,
Rise and look out; his chains are loose, his dungeon doors are open.
And let his wife and children return from the opressor's scourge.
They look behind at every step and believe it is a dream,
Singing, 'The Sun has left his blackness, and has found a fresher morning
And the fair Moon rejoices in the clear and cloudless night;
For Empire no more, and now the Lion and Wolf shall cease.'
William Blake, 1793