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Manhattan: The Unpeopled City and Crowds

Song Cycle by Rachel Devore Fogarty

1. From Brooklyn
 (Sung text)

Language: English 
Along the shore
 [ ... ]

Text Authorship:

  • by Evelyn Scott (1893 - 1963), appears in Precipitations, 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.

2. Startled Forests
 (Sung text)

Language: English 
     The thin hill pushes against the mist.
Its fading defiance sounds in the umber and red of autumn leaves.
Like a dead arm around a warm throat
Is the sagging embrace of the river
Laid grayly about the shore.

     The train passes.
We emerge from a tunnel into a sky of thin blue morning glories
Where yellow lily bells tinkle down.
The paths run swiftly away under the lamp glow
Like green and blue lizards
Mottled with light.

Text Authorship:

  • by Evelyn Scott (1893 - 1963), "Startled Forests: Hudson River", appears in Precipitations, first published 1920, copyright status unknown

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Researcher for this page: Joost van der Linden [Guest Editor]

3. Snow Dance
 (Sung text)

Language: English 
     Black brooms of trees sweep the sky clean;
Sweep the house fronts,
And leave them bleak in sleep.
High up the empty moon
Spills her vacuity.

     I dance.
My long black shadow

     Weaves an invisible pattern of pain.
The snow
Is embroidered with my happiness.

Text Authorship:

  • by Evelyn Scott (1893 - 1963), "Snow Dance", appears in Precipitations, first published 1920, copyright status unknown

Go to the general single-text view

Confirmed with Evelyn Scott, Precipitations, The Project Gutenberg, 2003


Researcher for this page: Joost van der Linden [Guest Editor]

4. Lights at Night  [sung text not yet checked]

Language: English 
     In the city,
Storms of light
Surge against the clouds,
Pushing up the darkness.

     In the country,
Is the faint pressure of oil lamps,
That sputter,
Smothered with earth—
Extinguished in silence.

Text Authorship:

  • by Evelyn Scott (1893 - 1963), "Lights at Night", appears in Precipitations, first published 1920, copyright status unknown

Go to the general single-text view

Confirmed with Evelyn Scott, Precipitations, The Project Gutenberg, 2003


Researcher for this page: Joost van der Linden [Guest Editor]

5. Crowds  [sung text not yet checked]

Language: English 
     The sky along the street a gauzy yellow:
The narrow lights burn tall in the twilight.

     The cool air sags,
Heavy with the thickness of bodies.
I am elated with bodies.
They have stolen me from myself.
I love the way they beat me to life,
Pay me for their cruelties.
In the close intimacy I feel for them
There is the indecency I like.

     I belong to them,
To these whom I hate;
And because we can never know each other,
Or be anything to each other,
Though we have been the most,
I sell so much of me that could bring a better price

Text Authorship:

  • by Evelyn Scott (1893 - 1963), "Crowds", appears in Precipitations, first published 1920, copyright status unknown

Go to the general single-text view

Confirmed with Evelyn Scott, Precipitations, The Project Gutenberg, 2003


Researcher for this page: Joost van der Linden [Guest Editor]
Total word count: 308
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