A Whisper
Soprano and organ | Duration c. 5’30"
Hewitt Hill Music
A Whisper is a setting of Frances Ellen Watkins Harper’s poem “The Dying Child to her Blind Father” for soprano solo and organ, commissioned in 2020 by Jim and Grace Roman. Harper (1825-1911) was born to free African American parents before the civil war, making her one of the few celebrated black female poets of her time. Being highly educated and eloquent, Harper spent her artistic capital and notoriety lending a distinct voice to the plight of African Americans, campaigning against the horrors of slavery in the United States, and fighting for women’s suffrage.
Dear father, I hear a whisper,
It tells me that I must go,
And my heart returns her answer
In throbbings so faint and low.
I’m sorry to leave you, father,
I know you will miss me so,
And the world for you will gather
A gloomier shade of woe.
You will miss me, dearest father,
When the violets wake from sleep,
And timidly from their hedges
The early snow-drops peep,
I shall not be here to gather
The flowers by stream and dell,
The bright and beautiful flowers,
Dear Father, you love so well.
You will miss my voice, dear father,
From every earthly tone,
All the songs that cheered your darkness,
And you’ll be so sad and lone.
You are weeping, dearest father,
Your sobs are shaking my soul,
But we’ll meet again where the shadow
And night from your eyes shall roll.
And then you will see me, father,
With visions undimmed and clear,
Your eyes will sparkle with rapture –
You know there’s no blindness there.
- Frances Ellen Watkins Harper