Come to me in the silence of the night;
Come in the speaking silence of a dream;
Come with soft rounded cheeks and eyes as bright
As sunlight on a stream;
Come back in tears,
O memory, hope, love of finished years. 

Oh dream how sweet, too sweet, too bitter sweet,
Whose [wakening]1 should have been in Paradise,
Where souls brimfull of love abide and meet;
Where [thirsting]2 longing eyes
Watch the slow door
That opening, letting in, lets out no more. 

Yet come to me in dreams, that I may live
My very life again though cold in death:
Come back to me in dreams, that I may give
Pulse for pulse, breath for breath:
Speak low, lean low,
As long ago, my love, how long ago!

J. Coulthard sets stanzas 1, 3

About the headline (FAQ)

View original text (without footnotes)
¹ Zaimont: "waking"
² Zaimont: "thirsty"
Note: the text inspired the orchestral work "Symphonic Rhapsody" by Ralph Vaughan Williams, 1904

Text Authorship:

• by Christina Georgina Rossetti (1830 - 1894), "Echo", written 1854 [author's text checked 1 time against a primary source]

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

• by Johan Backer-Lunde (1874 - 1958), "Echo", op. 38 no. 3 [sung text not yet checked]
• by Ernest Bullock, Sir (1890 - 1979), "Echo", published 1954 [sung text not yet checked]
• by Ling Chao Chen (b. 1959), "Echo" [ baritone and instrumental ensemble ] [sung text not yet checked]
• by Larry A. Christiansen (b. 1941), "Echo", published 1964 [ SATB chorus a cappella ] [sung text not yet checked]
• by Frederick Shepherd Converse (1871 - 1940), "Echo" [sung text not yet checked]
• by Jean Coulthard (1908 - 2000), "Echo", stanzas 1,3 [ voice and piano ], from Christina Songs, no. 3 [sung text checked 1 time]
• by Norman Dello Joio (1913 - 2008), "Come to me, my love", published 1973 [ satb chorus and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
• by Richard Bruce Faith (b. 1926), "Echo" [sung text not yet checked]
• by Edward C. Harris (1899 - ?), "Echo" [sung text not yet checked]
• by William Hawley (b. 1950), "Echo", first performed 1995 [ SSAATTBB chorus a cappella ], from Four Reveries, no. 1 [sung text not yet checked]
• by Gustav Holst (1874 - 1934), "Come to me", 1903 [ satb chorus a cappella ] [sung text not yet checked]
• by Bruno Siegfried Huhn (1871 - 1950), "Echo" [sung text not yet checked]
• by James Kallembach , "Echo" [ voice and piano ], from Autumn Violets, no. 1 [sung text checked 1 time]
• by Lori Laitman (b. 1955), "Echo" [sung text checked 1 time]
• by Theophilus Julius Henry Marzials (1850 - 1920), "Come back in dreams", published 1908 [sung text not yet checked]
• by John Musto (b. 1954), "Echo", from Recuerdo, no. 1 [sung text checked 1 time]
• by Thomas Pasatieri (b. 1945), "Echo", 2003 [ voice and piano ], from A rustling of angels, no. 10 [sung text not yet checked]
• by Frederick Piket (1903 - 1974), "Echo", published 1957 [ SSAA chorus a cappella ], from The Speaking Silence [sung text not yet checked]
• by Harold William Rhodes (1889 - 1956), "Echo", published 1925 [sung text not yet checked]
• by Howard Rovics (b. 1936), "Echo", 1964-5 [sung text not yet checked]
• by John Charles Sacco (1905 - 1987), "Echo", published 1975 [sung text not yet checked]
• by John Patrick Somers-Cocks (1907 - 1995), "Echo", 1959 [sung text not yet checked]
• by Henry (Richard Charles) Somerset, Lord (1849 - 1932), "Echo", published 1895 [sung text not yet checked]
• by Rudolph T. Werther (1896 - 1986), "Echo" [sung text not yet checked]
• by William Wolstenholme (1865 - 1931), "Echo", first performed 1903 [sung text not yet checked]
• by Charles Wood (1866 - 1926), "Echo", published 1927 [ voice and piano ], from Five Songs for High Voice, no. 5, London, Boosey & Hawkes [sung text not yet checked]
• by Judith Lang Zaimont , "Entreaty", from Greyed Sonnets: Five Serious Songs, no. 5 [sung text checked 1 time]
• by Douglas William Alfred Zanders (b. 1918), "Echo", 1952 [sung text not yet checked]

Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):

• GER German (Deutsch) (Bertram Kottmann) , "Echo", copyright © 2005, (re)printed on this website with kind permission

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 18
Word count: 128