Life! oh so old, My heart is cold, My vision dark with sleep. The winter's snow I long to fall, Entomb me deep! But still I see Through leafless tree Dying the sun's red light, And still the wish burns deep within: Let there be light! Hush, hush! no more! I'll close the door, The curtain I'll draw to; Then I'll lie down and face the wall, And come to you.

With its meandering and ambiguous tonality, its sometimes jarring dissonance and its juxtaposition between forward movement and moments of stillness, this choral miniature for SATB choir explores melancholy themes of loneliness, loss and the coming to a close of life. Shifting harmonic sands, the promise of resolution without the fulfilment of that promise, echo the hopeful longing expressed in Reuben Thomas's powerful text.

See also To Every Thing…, the full cycle which contains Winter.