Description Prayer for a New Mother Originally written for SATB Choir, unaccompanied Adapted for solo soprano, solo violin, strings, and harp Also adapted for Soprano, violin, and Piano Duration: 4’30 In loving memory of John R. “Jack” Larson Commissioned for the Choir of Trinity-by-the-Cove Episcopal Church, Naples, Florida Stephen L. Furches, Organist-Choirmaster Advent 1997 Prayer for a New Mother Text by: Dorothy Parker Musical setting by James M. Stephenson The things she knew, let her forget again The voices in the sky, the fear, the cold The gaping shepherds, and the queer old men Piling their gifts of foreign gold. Let her have laughter with her little one; Teach her the endless, tuneless songs to sing, Grant her the right to whisper to her son The foolish names one dare not call a king. Keep from her dreams the rumble of a crowd, The smell of rough-cut wood, the trail of red, The thick and chilly whiteness of the shroud That wraps the strange new body of the dead. Ah, let her go, kind Lord, where mothers go And boast his pretty words and ways, and plan The proud and happy years that they shall know Together, when her son is grown a man. [Repeat:] The things she knew, let her forget again; forget again.
