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Songs of Love and Death

Song Cycle by Marjorie M. Rusche

1. Wild nights
 (Sung text)

Language: English 
Wild nights! -- Wild nights!
Were I with thee,
Wild nights should be
Our luxury!

Futile -- the Winds --
To a heart in port, --
Done with the Compass, --
Done with the Chart!

Rowing in Eden --
Ah! the Sea!
Might I but moor -- Tonight --
In thee!

Text Authorship:

  • by Emily Dickinson (1830 - 1886), no title, appears in Poems by Emily Dickinson, first published 1891

See other settings of this text.

Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):

  • CHI Chinese (中文) (Mei Foong Ang) , copyright © 2018, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
  • FRE French (Français) (Guy Laffaille) , copyright © 2010, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
  • GER German (Deutsch) (Walter A. Aue) , "Sturmnacht! - Sturmnacht!", copyright © 2008, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
  • GER German (Deutsch) (Bertram Kottmann) , copyright © 2016, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
  • ITA Italian (Italiano) (Ferdinando Albeggiani) , "Notti selvagge! Notti di tempesta!", copyright © 2008, (re)printed on this website with kind permission

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

2. An Irish airman foresees his death
 (Sung text)

Language: English 
I know that I shall meet my fate
Somewhere among the clouds above;
Those that I fight I do not hate,
Those that I guard I do not love;
My country is Kiltartan Cross,
My countrymen Kiltartan's poor,
No likely end could bring them loss
Or leave them happier than before.
Nor law, nor duty bade me fight,
Nor public men, nor cheering crowds,
A lonely impulse of delight
Drove to this tumult in the clouds;
I balanced all, brought all to mind,
The years to come seemed waste of breath,
A waste of breath the years behind
In balance with this life, this death.

Text Authorship:

  • by William Butler Yeats (1865 - 1939), "An Irish airman foresees his death", appears in The Wild Swans at Coole, first published 1919

See other settings of this text.

Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):

  • FRE French (Français) (Pierre Mathé) , "Un aviateur irlandais prévoit sa mort", copyright © 2015, (re)printed on this website with kind permission

Confirmed with W. B. Yeats, Later Poems, Macmillan and Co., London, 1926, page 245.


Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

3. I can wade Grief
 (Sung text)

Language: English 
I can wade Grief —
Whole Pools of it —
I'm used to that —
But the least push of Joy
Breaks up my feet —
And I tip — drunken —
 ... 

Text Authorship:

  • by Emily Dickinson (1830 - 1886), no title, written 1862

Go to the general single-text view

Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):

  • GER German (Deutsch) (Bertram Kottmann) , "Waten durch Leid", copyright © 2016, (re)printed on this website with kind permission

Researcher for this page: Bertram Kottmann

4. This is just to say
 (Sung text)

Language: English 
I have eaten
 [ ... ]

Text Authorship:

  • by William Carlos Williams (1883 - 1963), "This is just to say", appears in Collected Poems 1921-1931, first published 1934, copyright ©

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This text may be copyright, so we will not display it until we obtain permission to do so or discover it is public-domain.

5. I heard a fly buzz
 (Sung text)

Language: English 
I heard a Fly buzz -- when I died -- 
The Stillness in the Room
Was like the Stillness in the Air -- 
Between the Heaves of Storm.

The Eyes around -- had wrung them dry -- 
And Breaths were gathering firm
For that last Onset -- when the King
Be witnessed -- in the Room -- 

I willed my Keepsakes -- Signed away
What portion of me be
Assignable -- and then it was
There interposed a Fly -- 

With Blue -- uncertain stumbling Buzz -- 
Between the light -- and me -- 
And then the Windows failed -- and then
I could not see to see --

Text Authorship:

  • by Emily Dickinson (1830 - 1886), no title, appears in Poems by Emily Dickinson, first published 1896

See other settings of this text.

Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):

  • GER German (Deutsch) (Bertram Kottmann) , copyright © 2018, (re)printed on this website with kind permission

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

6. The hanging man
 (Sung text)

Language: English 
By the roots of my hair some god got hold of me.
I sizzled in his blue volts like a desert prophet.

The nights snapped out of sight like a lizard's eyelid:
A world of bald white days in a shadeless socket.

A vulturous boredom pinned me in this tree.
If he were I, he would do what I did.

Text Authorship:

  • by Sylvia Plath (1932 - 1963), "The hanging man", appears in Ariel, first published 1965

See other settings of this text.

Please note: this text, provided here for educational and research use, is in the public domain in Canada, but it may still be copyright in other legal jurisdictions. The LiederNet Archive makes no guarantee that the above text is public domain in your country. Please consult your country's copyright statutes or a qualified IP attorney to verify whether a certain text is in the public domain in your country or if downloading or distributing a copy constitutes fair use. The LiederNet Archive assumes no legal responsibility or liability for the copyright compliance of third parties.

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

7. Mary's eyes
 (Sung text)

Language: English 
Mary's eyes are blue as azure
 [ ... ]

Text Authorship:

  • by Sheldon Allan "Shel" Silverstein (1930 - 1999), copyright ©

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This text may be copyright, so we will not display it until we obtain permission to do so or discover it is public-domain.

8. After Reading St. John the Divine
 (Sung text)

Language: English 
Moon's glow by sevenfold multiplied turned red
 [ ... ]

Text Authorship:

  • by Gene Derwood (1909 - 1954), copyright ©

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This text may be copyright, so we will not display it until we obtain permission to do so or discover it is public-domain.

9. Love comes quietly
 (Sung text)

Language: English 
Love comes quietly
 [ ... ]

Text Authorship:

  • by Robert Creeley (1926 - 2005), copyright ©

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This text may be copyright, so we will not display it until we obtain permission to do so or discover it is public-domain.

10. Living
 (Sung text)

Language: English 
The fire in leaf and grass
 [ ... ]

Text Authorship:

  • by Denise Levertov (1923 - 1997), "Living", appears in The Sorrow Dance, first published 1967, copyright ©

See other settings of this text.

This text may be copyright, so we will not display it until we obtain permission to do so or discover it is public-domain.
Total word count: 597
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This website began in 1995 as a personal project by Emily Ezust, who has been working on it full-time without a salary since 2008. Our research has never had any government or institutional funding, so if you found the information here useful, please consider making a donation. Your help is greatly appreciated!
–Emily Ezust, Founder

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