There is an Old Belief – Hubert Parry

There is an Old Belief (from Songs of Farewell) – Parry With the impact of the First World War, Parry’s ‘Songs of Farewell’ mark a musical call for peace and unity. This, the fourth movement, features a setting of John Gibson Lockhart’s poem, which hopes that one might awaken to a new, serene life ‘on some solemn shore’.

There is an old belief,

That on some solemn shore,

Beyond the sphere of grief

Dear friends shall meet once more.

Beyond the sphere of Time and Sin

And Fate’s control,

Serene in changeless prime

Of body and of soul.

That creed I fain would keep

That hope I’ll ne’er forgo,

Eternal be the sleep,

If not to waken so.