These are the days when Birds come back -- A very few -- a Bird or two -- To take a backward look. These are the days when skies resume The old -- old sophistries of June -- A blue and gold mistake. Oh fraud that cannot cheat the Bee -- Almost thy plausibility Induces my belief. Till ranks of seeds their witness bear -- And softly thro' the altered air Hurries a timid leaf. Oh Sacrament of summer days, Oh Last Communion in the Haze -- Permit a child to join. Thy sacred emblems to partake -- They consecrated bread to take And thine immortal wine!
Seven Songs of Love and Sorrow
by Ruth Schonthal (1924 - 2006)
1. These are the days  [sung text not yet checked]
Authorship:
- by Emily Dickinson (1830 - 1886), no title, first published 1890
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Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):
- FRE French (Français) (Guy Laffaille) , copyright © 2009, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
- GER German (Deutsch) (Walter A. Aue) , copyright © 2010, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
2. Wild nights  [sung text not yet checked]
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!
Authorship:
- by Emily Dickinson (1830 - 1886), no title, appears in Poems by Emily Dickinson, first published 1891
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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
1 note: sometimes "Winds". Hoiby, Leisner, Rusche, A. Thomas: "Winds"
Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]
3. Poor bit of a wench  [sung text not yet checked]
Will no one say hush! to thee, poor lass, poor bit of a wench? Will never a man say: Come, my pigeon, come an' be still wi' me, my own bit of a wench! And would you peck out his eyes if he did?
Authorship:
- by D. H. (David Herbert) Lawrence (1885 - 1930), "Poor bit of a wench"
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Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]4. The dove descending  [sung text not yet checked]
The dove descending breaks the air [ ... ]
Authorship:
- by T. S. (Thomas Stearns) Eliot (1888 - 1965), no title, appears in Four Quartets, in 4. Little Gidding, no. 4, first published 1942, 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.Note: first published in New English Weekly, October 1942.
5. A woman's last word  [sung text not yet checked]
I. Let's contend no more, Love, Strive nor weep: All be as before, Love, -- Only sleep! II. What so wild as words are? I and thou In debate, as birds are, Hawk on bough! III. See the creature stalking While we speak! Hush and hide the talking, Cheek on cheek! IV. What so false as truth is, False to thee? Where the serpent's tooth is Shun the tree -- V. Where the apple reddens Never pry -- Lest we lose our Edens, Eve and I. VI. Be a god and hold me With a charm! Be a man and fold me With thine arm! VII. Teach me, only teach, Love As I ought I will speak thy speech, Love, Think thy thought -- VIII. Meet, if thou require it, Both demands, Laying flesh and spirit In thy hands. IX. That shall be to-morrow Not to-night: I must bury sorrow Out of sight: X. -- Must a little weep, Love, (Foolish me!) And so fall asleep, Love, Loved by thee.
Authorship:
- by Robert Browning (1812 - 1889), "A woman's last word"
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Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]6. With rue my heart is laden  [sung text not yet checked]
With rue my heart is laden For golden friends I had, For many a rose-lipt maiden And many a lightfoot lad. By brooks too broad for leaping The lightfoot boys are laid; The rose-lipt girls are sleeping In fields where roses fade.
Authorship:
- by Alfred Edward Housman (1859 - 1936), no title, appears in A Shropshire Lad, no. 54, first published 1896
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Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]7. Go from me  [sung text not yet checked]
Go from me. Yet I feel that I shall stand Henceforward in thy shadow. Nevermore Alone upon the threshold of my door Of individual life, I shall command The uses of my soul, nor lift my hand Serenely in the sunshine as before, Without the sense of that which I forbore... Thy touch upon the palm. The widest land Doom takes to part us, leaves thy heart in mine With pulses that beat double. What I do And what I dream include thee, as the wine Must taste of its own grapes. And when I sue God for myself, He bears that name of thine, And sees within my eyes, the tears of two.
Authorship:
- by Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806 - 1861), no title, appears in Poems, in Sonnets from the Portuguese, no. 6
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Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):
- GER German (Deutsch) (Bertram Kottmann) , "Weiche, geh", copyright © 2007, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
- GER German (Deutsch) (Rainer Maria Rilke) , no title, appears in Sonette aus dem Portugiesischen, no. 6, first published 1908