Only waiting (Edward Roberts)

Music files

L E G E N D

Disclaimer

How to download

ICON	SOURCE
	Pdf
	Mp3
	File details
	Help

• (Posted 2024-06-18)  CPDL #80981:     

Editor: David Anderson (submitted 2024-06-18).   Score information: Letter, 4 pages, 255 kB   Copyright: Personal

Edition notes:

General Information

Title: Only waiting
Composer: Edward Roberts
Lyricist: Frances Laughton Mace
Number of voices: 4vv   Voicing: SATB
Genre: Secular, Partsong

Language: English
Instruments: A cappella

First published: 1868 F. J. Huntington & Co.
Description: A more secular variation of a hymn text that appeared in many hymnals of the era.

Original text and translations

English text

Only waiting till the shadows
Are a little longer grown,
Only waiting till the glimmer
Of the day’s last beam is flown,
Till the night of earth is faded
From the heart once full of day,
Till the stars of heaven are breaking
Thro’ the twilight, soft and gray.

Only waiting till the reapers
Have the last sheaf gathered home,
For the summertime is faded,
And the autumn winds have come;
Quickly, reapers, quickly gather
The last ripe hours of my heart,
For the bloom of life is withered,
And I hasten to depart.

Only waiting till the shadows
Are a little longer grown,
Only waiting till the glimmer
Of the day’s last beam is flown,
Then from out the gathering darkness,
Holy deathless stars arise,
By whose light my soul shall gladly
Tread its pathway to the skies.