I'll Wait For You

   Called the quintessential romantic musician of modern times, Bruce Springsteen wrote this love song for his second wife, Patti Scialfa, whom he married in 1989. According to Springsteen,  it is "one of my best songs about the dedication to one another that comes with love."

    Each musician comes to the microphone in a haunting and confessional way to ask their lover to wait for them. If true love exists in this world, shouldn't we wait for it?  The path of a river is not straight and and this song's use of the river, symbolizes the turns love can take. Our own steps are sometimes unclear to each other. Bruce makes it clear to his lover that he may not be perfect, but he  will always want her love. Some people have used this tune as their wedding song.

Crowley's Landing on Mullica River (New Jersey)

We said we'd walk together baby come what may
That come the twilight should we lose our way
If as we're walkin a hand should slip free
I'll wait for you
And should I fall behind
Wait for me

We swore we'd travel darlin' side by side
We'd help each other stay in stride
But each lover's steps fall so differently
But I'll wait for you
And if I should fall behind
Wait for me

Now everyone dreams of a love lasting and true
But you and I know what this world can do
So let's make our steps clear that the other may see
And I'll wait for you
If I should fall behind
Wait for me

Now there's a beautiful river in the valley ahead
There 'neath the oak's bough soon we will be wed
Should we lose each other in the shadow of the evening trees
I'll wait for you
And should I fall behind
Wait for me
Darlin' I'll wait for you
Should I fall behind
Wait for me

Bruce wasn''t the only dreamer expressing the desire to meet again. Walt Whitman gave instructions, advice and hope in "Song of Myself":

 “Failing to fetch me at first keep encouraged, / Missing me one place search another, / I stop somewhere waiting for you.”