Stars - Joel Bauman
Description
Composer: Joel Bauman
Text- Sara Teasdale
Alone in the night
On a dark hill
With pines around me
Spicy and still,
And a heaven full of stars
Over my head,
White and topaz
And misty red;
Myriads with beating
Hearts of fire
That aeons
Cannot vex or tire;
Up the dome of heaven
Like a great hill,
I watch them marching
Stately and still,
And I know that I
Am honored to be
Witness
Of so much majesty.
The Historic Faith · Hymn Companion
Stars
Words by Sara TeasdaleMusic by Joel BaumanWritten 1920
Alone in the night
On a dark hill
With pines around me
Spicy and still,
And a heaven full of stars
Over my head,
White and topaz
And misty red;
Myriads with beating
Hearts of fire
That aeons
Cannot vex or tire;
Up the dome of heaven
Like a great hill,
I watch them marching
Stately and still,
And I know that I
Am honored to be
Witness
Of so much majesty.
Story Behind the Song
The text is Sara Teasdale's poem "Stars," published in her 1920 collection Flame and Shadow. The poem is a brief lyric of solitary wonder, describing the speaker's awe beneath a sky full of stars. Joel Bauman later set Teasdale's public-domain text as a choral composition.