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Steele C.M.

By Aldo Thomas Ceresa

Key
A minor
Type
Plain tune
Time signature
2
2
Composed
2011
Text
Anne Steele, 1760

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Description

Named for Anne Steele (1717-1778), the author of the poetry, this tune was written from Steele's text in December, 2011. Sung by The Art Mob in their Spring, 2012 concerts, Steele appears on p. 232 of the fifth edition of Northern Harmony (2012).


Text

Life is a span—a fleeting hour—
How soon the vapor flies!
Man is a tender, transient flower,
That e'en while blooming—dies.

The once loved form, now cold and dead,
Each mournful thought employs;
And nature weeps her comforts fled,
And withered all her joys.

Hope looks beyond the bounds of time,
When what we now deplore
Shall rise in full, immortal prime,
And bloom to fade no more.

Cease then, fond nature, cease thy tears—
Thy Savior dwells on high;
There everlasting spring appears—
There joys shall never die.