by Amy Lowell (1874 - 1925)
Petals
Language: English
Life is a stream On which we strew Petal by petal the flower of our heart; The end lost in dream, They float past our view, We only watch their glad, early start. Freighted with hope, Crimsoned with joy, We scatter the leaves of our opening rose; Their widening scope, Their distant employ, We never shall know. And the stream as it flows Sweeps them away, Each one is gone Ever beyond into infinite ways. We alone stay While years hurry on, The flower fared forth, though its fragrance still stays.
Text Authorship:
- by Amy Lowell (1874 - 1925), "Petals", appears in A Dome of Many-Coloured Glass, first published 1912 [author's text checked 1 time 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 James H. Case (b. 1932), "Petals" [ SSA chorus a cappella ] [sung text not yet checked]
- by Jodi Goble (b. 1974), "Petals" [ soprano, mezzo-soprano and piano ], from The Heart of the World. Six settings of women poets from the school of Imagism, no. 6 [sung text not yet checked]
Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]
This text was added to the website: 2005-12-15
Line count: 18
Word count: 91