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Bright April

Song Cycle by Rick Sowash (b. 1950)

1. A little while
 (Sung text)

Language: English 
A little while when I am gone
My life will live in music after me,
As spun foam lifted and borne on
After the wave is lost in the full sea.
A while these nights and days will burn
In song with the bright frailty of foam,
Living in light before they turn
Back to the nothingness that is their home.

Text Authorship:

  • by Sara Teasdale (1884 - 1933), "A little while", appears in Flame and Shadow, first published 1920

See other settings of this text.

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

  • CHI Chinese (中文) [singable] (Dr Huaixing Wang) , copyright © 2024, (re)printed on this website with kind permission

Researcher for this page: Garth Baxter

2. A maiden
 (Sung text)

Language: English 
Oh if I were the velvet rose
      Upon the red rose vine,
I'd climb to touch his window
      And make his casement fine.

And if I were the bright-eye'd bird
      That twitters on the tree,
All day I'd sing my love for him
      Till he should harken me.

But since I am a maiden
      I go with downcast eyes,
And he will never hear the songs
      That he has turned to sighs.

And since I am a maiden
      My love will never know
That I could kiss him with a mouth
      More red than roses blow.

Text Authorship:

  • by Sara Teasdale (1884 - 1933), "A maiden", appears in Helen of Troy and Other Poems, first published 1911

See other settings of this text.

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

3. Less than the cloud to the wind
 (Sung text)

Language: English 
Less than the cloud to the wind,
Less than the foam to the sea,
Less than the rose to the storm,
Am I to thee.

More than the star to the night,
More than the rain to the tree,
More than heaven to earth
Art thou to me.

Text Authorship:

  • by Sara Teasdale (1884 - 1933), "Less than the cloud to the wind", appears in Helen of Troy and Other Poems, first published 1911

See other settings of this text.

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

4. I shall not care
 (Sung text)

Language: English 
When I am dead and over me bright April
      Shakes out her rain-drenched hair,
Tho' you should lean above me broken-hearted,
      I shall not care.

I shall have peace, as leafy trees are peaceful
      When rain bends down the bough,
And I shall be more silent and cold-hearted
      Than you are now.

Text Authorship:

  • by Sara Teasdale (1884 - 1933), "I shall not care", appears in Rivers to the Sea, first published 1915

See other settings of this text.

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

5. Grey eyes
 (Sung text)

Language: English 
It was April when you came
 The first time to me,
And my first look in your eyes
 Was like my first look at the sea.

We have been together
 Four Aprils now
Watching for the green
 On the swaying willow bough;

Yet whenever I turn
 To your gray eyes over me,
It is as though I looked
 For the first time at the sea.

Text Authorship:

  • by Sara Teasdale (1884 - 1933), "Gray eyes"

Go to the general single-text view

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

6. Gifts
 (Sung text)

Language: English 
I gave my first love laughter,
      I gave my second tears,
I gave my third love silence
      Thru all the years.

My first love gave me singing,
      My second eyes to see,
But oh my third love
Gave my soul to me.

Text Authorship:

  • by Sara Teasdale (1884 - 1933), "Gifts", appears in Rivers to the Sea, first published 1915

See other settings of this text.

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

7. Reprise: A little while
 (Sung text)

Language: English 
A little while when I am gone
My life will live in music after me,
As spun foam lifted and borne on
After the wave is lost in the full sea.
A while these nights and days will burn
In song with the bright frailty of foam,
Living in light before they turn
Back to the nothingness that is their home.

Text Authorship:

  • by Sara Teasdale (1884 - 1933), "A little while", appears in Flame and Shadow, first published 1920

See other settings of this text.

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

  • CHI Chinese (中文) [singable] (Dr Huaixing Wang) , copyright © 2024, (re)printed on this website with kind permission

Researcher for this page: Garth Baxter
Total word count: 427
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