O sweet spontaneous earth how often have the doting fingers of purient philosophers pinched and poked thee ,has the naughty thumb of science prodded thy beauty .how often have religions taken thee upon their scraggy knees squeezing and buffeting thee that thou mightest conceive gods (but true to the incomparable couch of death thy rhythmic lover thou answerest them only with spring)
In Spring -- 3 Songs for Unaccompanied Soprano on Poems by E. E. Cummings
Song Cycle by Juliana Hall (b. 1958)
1. O sweet spontaneous  [sung text checked 1 time]
Authorship:
- by E. E. (Edward Estlin) Cummings (1894 - 1962), no title, appears in Tulips and Chimneys, in 1. Tulips, in 5. La Guerre, no. 2, first published 1920
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First published as no. II in Five Songs in The Dial, Volume 68 no. 5, May 1920Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]
2. but the other  [sung text checked 1 time]
but the other day i was passing a certain gate rain fell as it will in spring ropes of silver gliding from sunny thunder into freshness as if god's flowers were pulling upon bells of gold i looked up and thought to myself death and will You with elaborate fingers possibly touch the pink hollyhock existence whose pansy eyes look from morning till night into the street unchangingly the always old lady sitting in her gentle window like a reminiscence partaken softly at whose gate smile always the chosen flowers of reminding
Authorship:
- by E. E. (Edward Estlin) Cummings (1894 - 1962), no title, appears in Tulips and Chimneys, in 1. Tulips, in 7. Portraits, no. 6, first published 1920
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First published as "but the other," number "III" of Five Poems in The Dial, Volume 68, Number 5 (May 1920).Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]
3. in Just—  [sung text checked 1 time]
in Just- spring when the world is mud- luscious the little lame balloonman whistles far and wee -- and eddieandbill come running from marbles and piracies and it's spring when the world is puddle-wonderful the queer old balloonman whistles far and wee and bettyandisbel come dancing from hop-scotch and jump-rope and it's spring and the goat-footed balloonMan whistles far and wee
Authorship:
- by E. E. (Edward Estlin) Cummings (1894 - 1962), no title, appears in Tulips and Chimneys, in 1. Tulips, in 2. Chansons innocentes, no. 1, first published 1920
See other settings of this text.
First published as "IV" in Five Poems, in The Dial, Volume 68 no. 5, May 1920, and in 1923 in Tulips and Chimneys.
Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]