by Emily Dickinson (1830 - 1886)
Two butterflies went out at noon
Language: English
Available translation(s): GER
Two butterflies went out at noon And waltzed [above a stream]1, Then stepped straight through the firmament And rested on a beam; And then together bore away Upon a shining sea, - Though never yet, in any port, Their coming mentioned be. If spoken by the distant bird, If met in ether sea By frigate or by merchantman, [Report was not]2 to me.
About the headline (FAQ)
View original text (without footnotes)1 Hoekman: "upon a Farm"
2 Hoekman: "No notice was"
Authorship:
- by Emily Dickinson (1830 - 1886), appears in Poems by Emily Dickinson, first published 1891 [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 Robert F. Baksa (b. 1938), "Two butterflies went out at noon", published 1978 [ mezzo-soprano, piano ], from Emily Dickinson Songs, no. 8 [sung text not yet checked]
- by Ray Green (b. 1908), "Butterflies", published 1954 [ SSA chorus a cappella ], from Three Choral Songs [sung text not yet checked]
- by Daron Aric Hagen (b. 1961), "Two butterflies" [ voice and piano ], from Songs of Experience, no. 6 [sung text not yet checked]
- by Timothy Hoekman , "Two butterflies went out at noon", 2002, published 2006 [ voice and piano ], from To Make a Prairie, no. 4 [sung text not yet checked]
- by John Brodbin Kennedy , "Two butterflies went out at noon", published 1966 [ SS chorus a cappella ], from Sails, Robins, and Butterflies [sung text not yet checked]
Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):
- GER German (Deutsch) (Bertram Kottmann) , no title, copyright © 2018, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
Research team for this page: Emily Ezust [Administrator] , Malcolm Wren [Guest Editor]
This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 12
Word count: 63