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Forgotten Light

Song Cycle by Scott Gendel (b. 1977)

1. Wild Nights!  [sung text not yet checked]

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

Futile -- the [Wind]1 --
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

View original text (without footnotes)
1 note: sometimes "Winds". Harmer, Hoiby, Leisner, Rusche, A. Thomas: "Winds"

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

2. A quiet way  [sung text not yet checked]

Language: English 
It was a quiet way –
He asked if I was His –
I made no answer of the
Tongue,
But answer of the Eyes –

And then he bore me on
Before this mortal noise
With Swiftness as of Chariots
And distance – as of Wheels –

This World did drop away
As Counties – from the feet
Of Him that leaneth in
Balloon –
Opon an Ether Street –

The Gulf behind – was not –
The Continents – were new –
Eternity – it was – before
Eternity was due –

No Seasons were – to us –
It was not Night – nor
Noon –

For Sunrise – stopped opon
the Place –
And fastened it – in Dawn.

Text Authorship:

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

Go to the general single-text view

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

3. Bring me the sunset  [sung text not yet checked]

Language: English 
Bring me the sunset in a cup --
Reckon the morning's flagons up
And say how many Dew --
Tell me how far the morning leaps --
Tell me what time the weaver sleeps
Who spun the breadth of blue!

Write me how many notes there be
In the new Robin's extasy [sic]1
Among astonished boughs --
How many trips the Tortoise makes --
How many cups the Bee partakes,
The Debauchee of Dews!

Also, Who laid the Rainbow's piers,
Also, Who leads the docile spheres
By withes of supple blue?
Whose fingers string the stalactite --
Who counts the wampum of the night
To see that none is due?

Who built this little Alban House
And shut the windows down so close
My spirit cannot see?
Who'll let me out some gala day
With implements to fly away,
Passing Pomposity?

Text Authorship:

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

See other settings of this text.

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

  • GER German (Deutsch) (Sharon Krebs) , copyright © 2014, (re)printed on this website with kind permission

View original text (without footnotes)

Confirmed with The Poems of Emily Dickinson, ed. R.W. Franklin, Volume 1, Cambridge, MA and London, England: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1998, Poem 140 (Version B).

1 Philips: "ecstasy"

Researcher for this page: Sharon Krebs [Guest Editor]

4. Heart! We will forget him  [sung text not yet checked]

Language: English 
Heart, we will forget him
You and I, tonight.
You may forget the warmth he gave,
I will forget the light.

When you have done, pray tell me,
That I [my thoughts may dim]1;
Haste! lest while you're lagging,
I may remember him!

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):

  • CAT Catalan (Català) (Salvador Pila) , "Cor, l’oblidarem", copyright © 2016, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
  • FRE French (Français) (Guy Laffaille) , "Mon cœur, nous l'oublierons", copyright © 2008, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
  • GER German (Deutsch) (Bertram Kottmann) , copyright © 2015, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
  • ITA Italian (Italiano) (Ferdinando Albeggiani) , copyright © 2011, (re)printed on this website with kind permission

View original text (without footnotes)
1 another version (Dickinson): "may straight begin"

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

5. I reason  [sung text not yet checked]

Language: English 
I reason, Earth is short —
And Anguish — absolute —
And many hurt,
But, what of that?

I reason, we could die —
The best Vitality
Cannot excel Decay,
But, what of that?

I reason, that in Heaven —
Somehow, it will be even —
Some new Equation, given —
But, what of that?

Text Authorship:

  • by Emily Dickinson (1830 - 1886), no title, appears in Poems of Emily Dickinson, first published 1890

See other settings of this text.

Research team for this page: Emily Ezust [Administrator] , Eric Saroian

6. The silent end  [sung text not yet checked]

Language: English 
And this of all my hopes,
This, is the silent end.
Bountiful colored, My Morning rose,
Early and sere, its end.

Never Bud from a Stem
Stepped with so gay a Foot,
Never a Worm so confident
Bored at so brave a Root.

Text Authorship:

  • by Emily Dickinson (1830 - 1886), no title, appears in Further poems of Emily Dickinson, first published 1929

See other settings of this text.

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

  • GER German (Deutsch) (Bertram Kottmann) , copyright © 2020, (re)printed on this website with kind permission

Researcher for this page: Barbara Miller

7. After great pain  [sung text not yet checked]

Language: English 
After great pain, a formal feeling comes –
The Nerves sit ceremonious, like Tombs –
The stiff Heart questions 'was it He, that bore,'
And 'Yesterday, or Centuries before'?

The Feet, mechanical, go round –
A Wooden way
Of Ground, or Air, or Ought –
Regardless grown,
A Quartz contentment, like a stone –

This is the Hour of Lead –
Remembered, if outlived,
As Freezing persons, recollect the Snow –
First – Chill – then Stupor – then the letting go –

Text Authorship:

  • by Emily Dickinson (1830 - 1886), no title, written 1862, appears in Further poems of Emily Dickinson

See other settings of this text.

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

  • FRE French (Français) (Guy Laffaille) , copyright © 2016, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
  • GER German (Deutsch) (Walter A. Aue) , copyright © 2010, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
  • GER German (Deutsch) (Bertram Kottmann) , no title, copyright © 2016, (re)printed on this website with kind permission

Confirmed with THE POEMS OF EMILY DICKINSON: READING EDITION, edited by Ralph W. Franklin, ed., Cambridge, Mass.: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, Copyright © 1998, 1999 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College. Copyright © 1951, 1955, 1979, 1983 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College.


Research team for this page: Emily Ezust [Administrator] , Bertram Kottmann
Total word count: 528
Gentle Reminder

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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