{{Short description|1899 song by Roden Noel and Edward Elgar}} {{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}} thumb "'''Sea Slumber Song'''" is a 19th-century poem by Roden Noel set to music by Edward Elgar as the first song in his song-cycle ''Sea Pictures'' (1899).<ref>{{Cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sGX-e4uPsfcC&q=roden+noel+sea+slumber+song+published+in&pg=PA75 |title = Christianity, Patriotism, and Nationhood: The England of G.K. Chesterton|isbn = 9780739132623|last1 = Stapleton|first1 = Julia|date = 2009-01-16}}</ref>
==Lyrics==
The poem here is as sung in ''Sea Pictures''.<ref>{{cite book|title=Program Notes for the Forty-Fifth Season|author=Chicago Symphony Orchestra|date=1936|publisher=Orchestral Association}}</ref>
''Italicised'' text indicates lines repeated in the song but not in the original poem. {{blockquote| '''Sea Slumber Song''' <poem> Sea-birds are asleep, The world forgets to weep, Sea murmurs her soft slumber-song On the shadowy sand Of this elfin land; "I, the Mother mild, ''Hush thee, O my child,'' Forget the voices wild! Isles in elfin light Dream, the rocks and caves, Lulled by whispering waves, ''Veil their marbles bright,'' Foam glimmers faintly white Upon the shelly sand Of this elfin land; Sea-sound, like violins, To slumber woos and wins, ''I murmur my soft slumber-song,'' ''Leave woes, and wails, and sins,'' Ocean's shadowy might Breathes good-night, ''Good-night!''"<ref>{{cite book |last1=Elgar |first1=Edward |title=Sea Pictures, Op.37 |date=1900 |publisher=Boosey & Co. |location=London |page=2 |url=https://imslp.org/wiki/Sea_Pictures,_Op.37_(Elgar,_Edward)}}</ref></poem>}}
== Elgar's setting == The sea's lullaby ("I, the Mother mild") is evoked by bass drum and tam-tam and strings repeating a phrase that reappears later in the song cycle. At "Isles in elfin light" the music changes key to C major before returning to the oceanic theme. <ref>Beales, Brendan ''Royal Philharmonic Orchestra Concert Programme'' for performance at the Royal Albert Hall 6 April 2008</ref>
== References == {{Reflist}}
== Further reading == * {{cite book|title=Conducting Elgar|author=Norman R. Del Mar|pages=199–200|chapter=Sea Slumber Song|date=1998|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=0-19-816557-9}} — Del Mar's notes on how to conduct the Sea Slumber Song
{{Edward Elgar}}
Category:Songs about oceans and seas Category:English poems Category:1899 songs Category:Songs by Edward Elgar