Let Down the Bars

Among the songs in Bacon’s Songs from Emily Dickinson is his setting of “Let Down the Bars,” a somber, yet tender soliloquy of death.

Composer: Ernst BaconText: Emily Dickinson

Print vitals & song text

Audio

Track:

    About

    Although Bacon’s choice of poetry for his song settings is vast, he is recognized for his settings of American poets, including Walt Whitman and Emily Dickinson. Bacon confirmed his preference for setting texts by the latter poet in his book Words on Music (Syracuse University Press, 1960), when he observed that in “America we have a wealth of lyric poetry calling for song, particularly the contributions of the women, beginning with Emily Dickinson…”

    Performers and scholars have ranked Bacon’s Dickinson settings among the best in the repertoire and have considered him to be one of Dickinson’s best interpreters. Few of Bacon’s songs have been published separately. Rather, most of his songs have been issued in collections, and quite often a song will appear in more than one collection, usually in a revised version. One such collection is Bacon’s Songs from Emily Dickinson, which was self-published by the composer.

    –Library of Congress

    Text

    Let down the bars
    by Emily Dickinson

    Let down the bars, O Death!
    The tired flocks come in
    Whose bleating ceases to repeat,
    Whose wandering is done.

    Thine is the stillest night,
    Thine the [securest]1 fold;
    Too near thou art for seeking thee,
    Too tender to be told.

    Related Information

    Sheet Music

    Songs from Emily Dickinson

    Composer(s): Ernst Bacon

    Song(s): As If the Sea Should Part
    Let down the bars
    O friend
    The grass so little has to do
    A threadless way
    The postponeless Creature
    I'm Nobody
    My river runs to thee
    How still the bells
    The sun went down
    The grass so little has to do
    Savior
    She went as quiet as the dew
    Wild nights

    Buy via Classical Vocal Reprints

    Support us and help us grow

    Dear friends, Thank you for helping us build a comprehensive online archive of American song. Your gift is greatly appreciated.