”In the Dawn” is a song written by the English composer Edward Elgar

Edward Elgar

Sir Edward William Elgar, 1st Baronet OM, GCVO was an English composer, many of whose works have entered the British and international classical concert repertoire. Among his best-known compositions are orchestral works including the Enigma Variations, the Pomp and Circumstance Marches, concertos...

 in 1901 as his Op.41, No.1.

The words are from the poem “The Professor” by Arthur Christopher Benson.

At about the same time Elgar wrote a song Speak, Music!, as his Op.41, No.2, with words from the same poem.

The two songs were first performed in the Queen's Hall

Queen's Hall

The Queen's Hall was a concert hall in Langham Place, London, opened in 1893. Designed by the architect T.E. Knightley, it had room for an audience of about 2,500 people. It became London's principal concert venue. From 1895 until 1941, it was the home of the promenade concerts founded by Robert...

 on 26 October 1901. The cover of the song, published by Boosey, indicates that it was sung by John Coates (tenor)

John Coates (tenor)

John Coates was a leading English tenor, who sang in opera and oratorio and on the concert platform. His repertoire ranged from Bach and Purcell to contemporary works, and embraced the major heldentenor roles in Richard Wagner's operas...

, who recorded the song in 1915.

Lyrics

Some souls have quickened, eye to eye,

And heart to heart, and hand in hand;

The swift fire leaps, and instantly

They understand.

Henceforth they can be cold no more;

Woes there may be, ay, tears and blood,

But not the numbness, as before

They understood.

Henceforth, though ages roll

Across wild wastes of sand and brine,

Whate’er betide, one human soul

Is knit with mine.

Whatever joy be dearly bought,

Whatever hope my bosom stirs,

The straitest cell of secret thought

Is wholly hers.

Ay, were I parted, life would be

A helpless, heartless flight along

Blind tracks in vales of misery

And sloughs of wrong.

Nay, God forgive me!

Life would roll like some dim moon thro’ cloudy bars;

But to have loved her sets my soul

Among the stars.

Recordings

• An early recording was made in 1915 by John Coates
  John Coates (tenor)
  John Coates was a leading English tenor, who sang in opera and oratorio and on the concert platform. His repertoire ranged from Bach and Purcell to contemporary works, and embraced the major heldentenor roles in Richard Wagner's operas...
  
  for the Gramophone Company 02583
• Songs and Piano Music by Edward Elgar has "In the Dawn" performed by Mark Wilde (tenor), with David Owen Norris (piano).
• Elgar: Complete Songs for Voice & Piano Amanda Roocroft (soprano), Reinild Mees (piano)
• The Songs of Edward Elgar SOMM CD 220 Neil Mackie (tenor) with Malcolm Martineau (piano), at Southlands College, London, April 1999