Prologue: Ships That Pass in the Night

"Prologue: Ships That Pass in the Night" is the prologue to Jake Heggie's song cycle A Great Hope Fell: Songs From Civil War.

Date: 2001Composer: Jake HeggieText: Paul Laurence DunbarSong Collection: A Great Hope Fell: Songs From Civil War

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Ships That Pass in the Night
by Paul Laurence Dunbar

Out in the sky the great dark clouds are massing;
I look far out into the pregnant night,
Where I can hear a solemn booming gun
And catch the gleaming of a random light,
That tells me that the ship I seek is passing, passing.

My tearful eyes my soul’s deep hurt are glassing;
For I would hail and check that ship of ships.
I stretch my hands imploring, cry aloud,
My voice falls dead a foot from mine own lips,
And but its ghost doth reach that vessel, passing, passing.

O Earth, O Sky, O Ocean, both surpassing,
O heart of mine, O soul that dreads the dark!
Is there no hope for me? Is there no way
That I may sight and check that speeding bark
Which out of sight and sound is passing, passing?

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