by William Carlos Williams (1883 - 1963)
The Botticellian Trees
Language: English
The alphabet of the trees is fading in the song of the leaves the crossing bars of thin letters that spelled winter and the cold have been illumined with pointed green— by the rain and sun— The strict simple principles of straight branches are being modified by pinched-out ifs of color, devout conditions the smiles of love— unit the stript sentences move as a woman’s limbs under cloth and praise from secrecy quick with desire love’s ascendancy in summer— In summer the song sings itself above the muffled words—
Authorship:
- by William Carlos Williams (1883 - 1963) [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 Stanley Grill (b. 1953), "The Botticellian Trees", copyright © 2004 [2 voices and 2 cellos], from Vignettes - Trees, no. 2, confirmed with an online score [ sung text verified 1 time]
Researcher for this page: Malcolm Wren [Guest Editor]
This text was added to the website: 2018-04-25
Line count: 32
Word count: 89