We are so tired, and perhaps tomorrow Will never come; be fugitive awhile From tears, and let the dancing drtnk your sorrow As it has drunk the colour of your smile. Your face is like a mournful pearl, my darling; Go, set a rose of rouge upon its white, And stop your ears against the tiger-snarling Where lightning stripes the thunder of the night. Now falling, falling, feather after feather, The music spreads a softness on the ground; Now for an instant we are held together Hidden within a swinging mist of sound. Forget these frustrate and unhappy lovers; Forget that he is sad and she is pale; Come, let us dream the little death that hovers Pensive as heaven in a cloudy veil.
Two Lyrics by Elinor Wylie
Song Cycle by John Woods Duke (1899 - 1984)
?. Viennese waltz  [sung text not yet checked]
Authorship:
- by Elinor Wylie (1885 - 1928), "Viennese waltz", appears in Collected Poems, first published 1932
See other settings of this text.
Confirmed with James G. Southworth, More Modern American Poets, Oxford Basil Black Well 1954, p.39
Researcher for this page: Joost van der Linden [Guest Editor]
?. Velvet shoes  [sung text not yet checked]
Let us walk in the white snow In a soundless space; With footsteps quiet and slow, At a tranquil pace, Under veils of white lace. I shall go shod in silk, And you in wool, White as white cow's milk, More beautiful Than the breast of a gull. We shall walk through the still town In a windless peace; We shall step upon white down, Upon silver fleece, Upon softer than these. We shall walk in velvet shoes: Wherever we go Silence will fall like dews On [white]1 silence below. We shall walk in the snow.
Authorship:
- by Elinor Wylie (1885 - 1928), "Velvet shoes", appears in Nets to Catch the Wind, first published 1921
See other settings of this text.
Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):
- GER German (Deutsch) (Bertram Kottmann) , "Sammetschuh", copyright © 2013, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
1 Thompson: "the white"
Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]