[Let]1 it be beautiful when I sing the last song, Let it be day! I would stand upon my two feet, singing! I would look upward with open eyes, singing! I would have the winds to envelope my body; I would have the sun to shine upon my body; The whole world [would I]2 have to make music with me! Let it be beautiful when thou wouldst slay me, O Shining One! Let it be day when I sing the last song!
Portrait of America
by Diana Blom
1. The last song  [sung text checked 1 time]
Authorship:
- by Hartley Burr Alexander (1873 - 1939), "The last song"
See other settings of this text.
View original text (without footnotes)1 Blom (first time): "To die singing. Let"
2 Blom: "I would"
Note: here is the text as sung the second time in Blom's cycle:
[...] I would stand upon my two feet, singing! I would look upward with open eyes, singing! I would have the winds to envelope my body; [...] the sun to shine upon my body; The whole world I would have to make music with me! Let it be beautiful [...] Let it be day when I sing the last song!
Research team for this page: Emily Ezust [Administrator] , Garrett Medlock [Guest Editor]
2. I am the little Irish boy  [sung text checked 1 time]
I am [the]1 little Irish boy That lives in the shanty I am four years old today And shall soon be one and twenty I shall grow up And be a great man And shovel all day As hard as I can. Down in the deep cut Where the men lived Who made the Railroad. For supper I have some [potato]2 And sometimes some bread And then if it's cold I go right to bed. I lie on some straw Under my father's coat My mother does not cry And my father does not scold For I am a little Irish Boy And I'm four years old.
Authorship:
- by Henry David Thoreau (1817 - 1862), "I am the little Irish boy"
Go to the single-text view
View original text (without footnotes)Confirmed with The Book of Irish American Poetry: from the Eighteenth Century to the Present, ed. Daniel Tobin, University of Notre Dame Press, 2007.
1 Blom: "a"2 Blom: "potatoes"
Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]
3. A shadow  [sung text checked 1 time]
I said unto myself, if I were dead, What would befall these children? What would be Their fate, who now are looking up to me For help and furtherance? Their lives, I said, Would be a volume wherein I have read But the first chapters, and no longer see To read the rest of their dear [history]1, So full of beauty and so full of dread. Be comforted; the world is very old, And generations pass, as they have passed, A troop of shadows moving with the sun; Thousands of times has the old tale been told; The world belongs to those who come the last, They will find hope and strength as we have done.
Authorship:
- by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807 - 1882), "A shadow"
Go to the single-text view
View original text (without footnotes)1 Blom: "hist'ry"
Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]
4. Indian Prayer  [sung text checked 1 time]
Do not stand at my grave and weep; I am not there. I do not sleep. I am a thousand winds that blow. I am the diamond [glints]1 on snow. I am the sunlight on ripened grain. I am the gentle autumn rain. When you [awaken in the morning's]2 hush I am the swift uplifting rush Of quiet birds in [circled]3 flight. I am the soft [stars that shine]4 at night. Do not stand at my grave and [cry]5; I am not there. I [did not die]6.
Authorship:
- by Mary Elizabeth Frye (1905 - 2004), an early version, long regarded as anonymous, reproduced widely
See other settings of this text.
Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):
- FIN Finnish (Suomi) (Erkki Pullinen) , copyright © 2015, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
1 Blom: "glint"
2 Blom: "wake in the morning hush"
3 Blom: "circling"
4 Blom: "starlight" ; Moravec: "star that shines"
5 Blom: "weep"
6 Blom: "do not sleep"
Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]
5. The last song (reprise)  [sung text checked 1 time]
[Let]1 it be beautiful when I sing the last song, Let it be day! I would stand upon my two feet, singing! I would look upward with open eyes, singing! I would have the winds to envelope my body; I would have the sun to shine upon my body; The whole world [would I]2 have to make music with me! Let it be beautiful when thou wouldst slay me, O Shining One! Let it be day when I sing the last song!
Authorship:
- by Hartley Burr Alexander (1873 - 1939), "The last song"
See other settings of this text.
View original text (without footnotes)1 Blom (first time): "To die singing. Let"
2 Blom: "I would"
Note: here is the text as sung the second time in Blom's cycle:
[...] I would stand upon my two feet, singing! I would look upward with open eyes, singing! I would have the winds to envelope my body; [...] the sun to shine upon my body; The whole world I would have to make music with me! Let it be beautiful [...] Let it be day when I sing the last song!
Research team for this page: Emily Ezust [Administrator] , Garrett Medlock [Guest Editor]