Thy Voice Is Near Me in My Dreams

DESCRIPTION: "Thy voice is near me in my dreams, in accents sweet and low." It recalls happy times in the past. But "though I listen to thy voice, Thy face I never see." "And every day I fondly say, He'll come at last.... The first, the dearest one"
AUTHOR: Words: "Mrs. Aylmer" / Music: W. T. Wrighton (source: sheet music at the University of Wisconsin-Madison)
EARLIEST DATE: 1869 (Thats-The-Style-For-Me-Songster)
KEYWORDS: love separation abandonment
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Thats-The-Style-For-Me-Songster, p. 56, "Thy Voice Is Near" (1 text)
Roud #12902
BROADSIDES:
NLScotland, L.C.1269(169a), "Thy Voice is Near," Poet's Box (Glasgow?), 1869
NOTES [104 words]: The sheet music of this is dedicated to "Her Grace the Duchess of Northumberland." It shows no copyright date, but publisher Robert Cocks & Co. mention Queen Victoria on the cover. That makes the Duchess either Charlotte Percy (died 1866), wife of the third duke, or Eleanor Percy (died 1911), the wife of the fourth duke. We know the song was in existence by 1869, but that isn't much help, since both duchesses outlived their husbands. The third duke died in 1847 and the fourth in 1865, so that doesn't clarify matters much.
One wonders what it says to dedicate to a duchess a song about being abandoned by a lover. - RBW
Last updated in version 7.1
File: TSFM056

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