by Emily Dickinson (1830 - 1886)
When I was small, a woman died
Language: English
When I was small, a woman died; Today her only boy Went up from the Potomac, His face all victory To look at her. How slowly The seasons must have turned, Till bullets clipped an angle And he passed quickly round. If pride shall be in paradise, Ourself cannot decide; Of their imperial conduct No person testified. But proud in apparition, That woman and her boy Pass back and forth before my brain, As even in the sky I'm confident that bravos Perpetual break abroad For braveries remote as this In scarlet Maryland.
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Authorship:
- by Emily Dickinson (1830 - 1886), no title [author's text not yet checked against a primary source]
Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive):
- by Gordon Getty (b. 1933), "When I was small, a woman died" [soprano and piano], from The White Election - A Song Cycle for soprano and piano on 32 poems of Emily Dickinson, Part 2 : So We Must Meet Apart, no. 13. [text verified 1 time]
Researcher for this page: Barbara Miller
This text was added to the website: 2011-01-12
Line count: 20
Word count: 93