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by John Elder (b. 1947)

Transit of Venus
Language: English 
Choose for Diff
When the planetary speck 
                    comes near the sun, 
a human watcher sees 
                    a bridge of fire 
flare out and that 
                    grand circle rup-
ture like the maple 
                    trees winged disk 
in spring.

And when that small 
                    black wanderer 
enters the hot
                     interior, the 
smooth circumference
                     flexes in, 
giving way again.

Standing in the dark 
                    mountains and 
peering through a 
                    thick smoked pane, 
an observer sees 
                    celestial calm 
return as
                    Venus glides for 
minutes past 
                    that broad face.

And when the 
                    other edge 
is reached, the 
                    sun is suddenly 
whipsawed again, 
                    discomposed by 
consternation 
                    or delight.

Text Authorship:

  • by John Elder (b. 1947) [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 Su Lian Tan (b. 1964), "Transit of Venus" [ soprano, violin, violoncello and piano ], from River of the Trunk, no. 2 [sung text not yet checked]

Researcher for this page: Joost van der Linden [Guest Editor]

This text was added to the website: 2026-08-13
Line count: 34
Word count: 95

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