Ye Who Walk In Darkness

For Christmas

Words: Shapcott Wensley

Music: Edmund Sedding
See: Sedding, ed., Antient Carols for Christmas and Other Tides

Source: "Three Christmas Carols (Old French)," Arranged for Four Voices by Edmund Sedding. (London: Novello and Company, Limited; New York: The H. W. Gray Co.), reproduced in The Musical Times and Singing-class Circular, Number 825, Volume 52 (Nov. 1, 1911), printed between pp. 734 and 735.

1. Ye who walk in darkness,
    Turn to greet the morn!
Lo! in David's City,
    Christ the Lord is born!
O not with earthly trumpets,
    Not with rolling drums;
But with the Song of Angels,
    Christ the Saviour come!

2. Ye who sin and sorrow,
    Lift your downcast eyes!
He who comes to save you,
    In a manger lies!
For He will give you blessing,--
    Bid your sorrow cease,
And light the darkened heavens,
    With the bow of peace!

3. O ye Kings and Princes!
    Sheath the cruel sword!
Come to David's City,--
    See your new-born Lord!
O learn of Him is meekness,
    Learn of Him alone,
The glory of whose manger,
    Pales your brightest throne!

4. Come, ye heavy laden,
    Is His strength be blest!
Come, ye worn and weary,
    He will give you rest!
O turn all ye who wander!
    Greet the radiant morn!
For lo, in David's City,
    Christ the Lord is born!

Sheet Music arranged for four voices by Edmund Sedding

The other two carols were A Day, A Day of Glory and Masters In The Hall.

Notes.

Shapcott Wensley was the pseudonym of the English author, poet and lyricist Henry Shapcott Bunce (1854 – June 1, 1917); his pseudonym was created from the combined names of his mother and wife. He worked with many of the leading composers of his time, including Elgar, Leoni, J. H. Maunder, Jacobi, J. L. Roeckel, Arthur Somervell, J. Frederick Bridge, F. H. Cowen, and John E. West. Many of his texts were commissioned by Novello, and he was said to have considerable gifts as a reciter and speaker. There was an obituary in The Musical Times, Vol. 58, No. 893 (Jul. 1, 1917), p. 323 <http://www.jstor.org/stable/908434>. For more information, see the Wikipedia article, Shapcott Wensley, <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shapcott_Wensley>, accessed Dec. 17, 2016.

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