Edgar is Asleep in Baltimore Tonight

"Edgar is Asleep in Baltimore Tonight" is a 4-part SATB choral anthem inspired by Edgar Allen Poe's mysterious death in Baltimore in October of 1849.

Lyrics:

Watch where you step,
There’s seagull shit and fish guts and the boards are soaking wet.
Watch where you step for the light of the lamp
Glows dim through the dark of the fog in the damp
Of Baltimore.

Down in the scum,
The shadow of a sleeping sailor, drunkard or a bum.
Don’t get too close; from a ship’s distant light
His silent mouth screams to the dead of the night.

And Edgar is asleep in Baltimore tonight,
May his rest be peaceful and his morning bright.
Who heard him shout?
Although his mouth was silent he was always calling out:
The step of a cat, the call of a bird,
The beat of a heart screaming out to be heard.
And Edgar is asleep in Baltimore tonight,
May his rest be peaceful and his morning bright.

His battles are done,
But the trumpets are all silent and no victory song is sung.
Alone in the dark one casualty is found;
His life was a war, his body a battle ground.
And Edgar is asleep in Baltimore tonight.

© 2010, Daniel C. Meyer