I Climb to Rest (James M. Dungan)

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• (Posted 2023-10-10)  CPDL #76219:     

Editor: David Anderson (submitted 2023-10-10).   Score information: Letter, 12 pages, 625 kB   Copyright: Personal

Edition notes:

General Information

Title: I Climb to Rest
Composer: James M. Dungan
Lyricist: Lucy Larcom
Number of voices: 4vv   Voicing: SATB
Genre: Sacred, Partsong

Language: English
Instruments: A cappella

First published: 1890 Echo Music Company
Description: from a publication intended for general pedagogical use, not church.

Original text and translations

English text

Still must I climb if I would rest,
The bird soars upward to its nest;
The young leaf on the treetop high
Cradles itself within the sky.

The streams that seem to hasten down
Return in clouds the hills to crown;
The plant arises from her root
To rock her flower and fruit.

I cannot in the valley stay,
The great horizons stretch away;
The very cliffs that wall me round
Are ladders unto higher ground.

To work, to rest, for watch a time,
I toil, but I must also climb;
What soul was ever quite at ease
Shut in by earthly boundaries.

I am not glad till I have known
Life that can lift me from my own;
A loftier level must be won,
A mightier strength to lean upon.

And heaven draws near as I ascend,
The breeze invites, the stars befriend;
All things are beckoning to the best,
I climb to thee, my God, my God, for rest.