Cycle of Songs on Poems by Paul Laurence Dunbar

Song Cycle by Zenobia Powell (1908 - 2004)

1. Sunset  [sung text not yet checked]

Language: English 
The river sleeps beneath the sky,
And clasps the shadows to its breast;
The crescent moon shines dim on high;
And in the lately radiant west

The gold is fading into gray.
Now stills the lark his festive lay,
And mourns with me the dying day.
While in the south the first faint star
Lifts to the night its silver face,
And twinkles to the moon afar
Across the heaven’s graying space,
Low murmurs reach me from the town,
As Day puts on her sombre crown,
And shakes her mantle darkly down.

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Confirmed with The Complete Poems of Paul Laurence Dunbar, New York: Dodd, Mead, and Company, 1913.


Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

2. On a Clean Book

Language: English 
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3. Spring Song

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4. Drizzle

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5. Life  [sung text not yet checked]

Language: English 
A crust of bread and a corner to sleep in,
A minute to smile and an hour to weep in,
A pint of joy to a peck of trouble,
And never a laugh but the moans come double;
        And that is life!

A crust and a corner that love makes precious,
With a smile to warm and the tears to refresh us;
And joy seems sweeter when cares come after,
And a moan is the finest of foils for laughter;
        And that is life!

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Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]
Total word count: 176