I want to die while you love me, While yet you hold me fair, While laughter lies upon my lips And lights are in my hair. I want to die while you love me, And bear to that still bed, Your kisses turbulent, unspent To warm me when I'm dead. I want to die while you love me Oh, who would care to live Till love has nothing more to ask And nothing more to give! I want to die while you love me And never, never see The glory of this perfect day Grow dim or cease to be.
Four Songs of a Woman
Song Cycle by Gary Bachlund (b. 1947)
1. I want to die while you love me
Language: English
Text Authorship:
- by Georgia Douglas Johnson (1880 - 1966), no title, from The Book of American Negro Poetry, first published 1922
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Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]2. The heart of a woman
Language: English
The heart of a woman goes forth with the dawn As a lone bird, soft winging so restlessly on. Afar o'er life's turrets and vales does it roam. In the wake of those echoes, the heart calls home. The heart of a woman falls back with the night And enters some alien cage in its plight, And tries to forget it has dreamed of the stars While it breaks, breaks on the sheltering bars.
Text Authorship:
- by Georgia Douglas Johnson (1880 - 1966), "The heart of a woman", first published 1922
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First published in The Book of American Negro Poetry, 1922.Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]
3. Youth
Language: English
The dew is on the grasses, dear, The blush is on the rose, And swift across our dial-youth, A shifting shadow goes. The primrose moments, lush with bliss, Exhale and fade away, Life may renew the Autumn time, But nevermore the May!
Text Authorship:
- by Georgia Douglas Johnson (1880 - 1966), from The Book of American Negro Poetry, first published 1922
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Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]4. My little dreams
Language: English
I'm folding up my little dreams Within my heart to-night, And praying I may soon forget The torture of their sight. For Time's deft fingers scroll my brow With fell relentless art -- I'm folding up my little dreams To-night, within my heart!
Text Authorship:
- by Georgia Douglas Johnson (1880 - 1966), from The Book of American Negro Poetry, first published 1922
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Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]Total word count: 258