Before man came to blow it right
The wind once blew itself untaught,
And did its loudest day and night
In any rough place where it caught.
Man came to tell it what was wrong:
It hadn’t found the place to blow;
It blew too hard—the aim was song.
And listen—how it ought to go!
He took a little in his mouth,
And held it long enough for north
To be converted into south,
And then by measure blew it forth.
By measure. It was word and note,
The wind the wind had meant to be—
A little through the lips and throat.
The aim was song—the wind could see.
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Text Authorship:
- by Robert Frost (1874 - 1963) [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 Stanley Grill (b. 1953), "The aim was song", copyright © 2019 [ soprano and cello ], confirmed with an online score [sung text checked 1 time]
- by Ronald Perera (b. 1941), "The Aim Was Song", 2017 [ medium voice and piano ], from The Music Makers. Two Songs for Medium Voice and Piano on poems by Elizabeth Barrett Browning and Robert Frost, no. 2, Pear Tree Press Music Publishers distributed by Subito Music Corp. [sung text not yet checked]
Researcher for this page: Malcolm Wren [Guest Editor]
This text was added to the website: 2020-03-29
Line count: 16
Word count: 110