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by Carl Sandburg (1878 - 1967)

Back Yard
Language: English 
Shine on, O moon of summer.
Shine to the leaves of grass, catalpa and oak,
All silver under your rain to-night.

An Italian boy is sending songs to you to-night from an accordion.
A Polish boy is out with his best girl; they marry next month; to-night they are throwing you kisses.
 
An old man next door is dreaming over a sheen that sits in a cherry tree in his back yard.

The clocks say I must go - I stay here sitting on the back porch drinking white thoughts you rain down.

      Shine on, O moon,
Shake out more and more silver changes.

Text Authorship:

  • by Carl Sandburg (1878 - 1967), "Back Yard", appears in Chicago Poems, first published 1916 [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 Sam Raphling (b. 1910), "Back Yard", published 1973 [SATB chorus a cappella], from Four Chicago Poems [
     text not verified 
    ]

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

This text was added to the website: 2007-07-07
Line count: 9
Word count: 103

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