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Eagle Lake 8s & 7s

By Jesse P. Karlsberg

Key
F♯ minor
Type
Folk hymn
Time signature
6
4
Composed
2009
Text
Samuel Pearce, 1800

Listen to recordings


Description

Written after staying with Lauren's parents at their vacation home in Eagle Lake, Pennsylvania with a bunch of singers the day after the 2009 Maidencreek singing. Conceived of as a 3-liner and written without a text in mind, but set later in September 2009 to Samuel Pearce's "Dark and thorny is the desert..."


Text

Dark and thorny is the desert
Through which pilgrims make their way
But beyond this vale of sorrows
Lie the fields of endless day;

There, on flowery hills of pleasure,
In the fields of endless rest,
Love, and joy, and peace, shall ever
Reign in triumph in your breast.

Who can paint those scenes of glory,
Where the ransomed dwell on high?
Where the golden harps for ever
Sound redemption through the sky?