Gather the stars if you wish it so. Gather the songs and keep them. Gather the faces of women. Gather for keeping years and years. And then ... Loosen your hands, let go and say good-by. Let the stars and songs go. Let the faces and years go. Loosen your hands and say good-by.
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Confirmed with Carl Sandburg , The Complete Poems of Carl Sandburg, Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1970, p.207
Text Authorship:
- by Carl Sandburg (1878 - 1967), "Stars, Songs, Faces", appears in Smoke and Steel [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 Johanna Beyer (1888 - 1944), "Stars, Songs, Faces" [ soprano, piano and percussion ], from Three Songs : Sandburg Songs, no. 2 [sung text not yet checked]
Researcher for this page: Joost van der Linden [Guest Editor]
This text was added to the website: 2025-03-22
Line count: 9
Word count: 53