It's strange about stars ... You have to be still when they look at you. They push your song inside of you with their song. Their long silvery rays sink into you and do not hurt. It is good to feel them resting on you like great white birds... and their shining whiteness doesn't burn like the sun — it washes all over you and makes you feel cleaner'n water.
Lola Ridge Songs
Song Cycle by Melissa Dunphy (b. 1980)
1. It's strange about stars... [sung text not yet checked]
Language: English
Text Authorship:
- by Lola Ridge (1873 - 1941), no title, appears in Sun-Up and Other Poems, in 4. Betty, no. 4
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Confirmed with Lola Ridge, Sun-Up and Other Poems, The Project Gutenberg
Researcher for this page: Joost van der Linden [Guest Editor]
2. Shadows over a cradle... [sung text not yet checked]
Language: English
(Shadows over a cradle... fire-light craning... A hand throws something in the fire and a smaller hand runs into the flame and out again, singed and empty... Shadows settling over a cradle... two hands and a fire.)
Text Authorship:
- by Lola Ridge (1873 - 1941), no title, appears in Sun-Up and Other Poems, in Sun-Up, no. 1, first published 1920
Go to the general single-text view
Confirmed with Lola Ridge, Sun-Up and Other Poems, The Project Gutenberg
Researcher for this page: Joost van der Linden [Guest Editor]
3. Different kinds of shadows [sung text not yet checked]
Language: English
There are different kinds of shadows. The blind ones are the shadows of things. These are the tame shadows— they love to play on the wall with you and follow you about like cats and dogs. Sometimes they hiss at you softly like snakes that do not bite, or swish like women's dresses, but if you poke a candle at them they pull in their heads and disappear. But there is a shadow that is not the shadow of a thing... it is a thing itself. When you meet this shadow you must not look at it too long... it grows with your looking at it... till you are all alone with nothing around you... nothing... nothing... nothing... but a shadow with its eyes full of black light.
Text Authorship:
- by Lola Ridge (1873 - 1941), no title, appears in Sun-Up and Other Poems, in 4. Betty, no. 14, first published 1920
Go to the general single-text view
Confirmed with Lola Ridge, Sun-Up and Other Poems, The Project Gutenberg
Researcher for this page: Joost van der Linden [Guest Editor]
4. It isn't a dream... [sung text not yet checked]
Language: English
It isn't a dream.... It comes again and again.... You hear ivy crying on steeples the flames haven't caught yet and images screaming when they see red light on the lilies on the stained glass window of St. Joseph. The girl with the black eyes holds you tight, and you run... and run past the wild, wild towers... and trees in the gardens tugging at their feet and little frightened dolls shut up in the shops crying... and crying... because no one stops... you spin like a penny thrown out in the street. Then the man clutches her by the hair.... He always clutches her by the hair.... His eyes stick out like spears. You see her pulled-back face and her black, black eyes lit up by the glare.... Then everything goes out. Please God, don't let me dream any more of the girl with the black, black eyes.
Text Authorship:
- by Lola Ridge (1873 - 1941), no title, appears in Sun-Up and Other Poems, in 1. Celia, no. 5, first published 1920
Go to the general single-text view
Confirmed with Lola Ridge, Sun-Up and Other Poems, The Project Gutenberg
Researcher for this page: Joost van der Linden [Guest Editor]
Total word count: 383