when god lets my body be From each brave eye shall sprout a tree fruit that dangles therefrom the purpled world will dance upon Between my lips which did sing a rose shall beget the spring that maidens whom passion wastes will lay between their little breasts My strong fingers beneath the snow Into strenuous birds shall go my love walking in the grass their wings will touch with her face and all the while shall my heart be With the bulge and nuzzle of the sea
Six Songs to Poems by E. E. Cummings
Song Cycle by William Laurence Bergsma (1921 - 1994)
1. when god lets my body be  [sung text not yet checked]
Authorship:
- by E. E. (Edward Estlin) Cummings (1894 - 1962), no title, appears in Tulips and Chimneys, in 1. Tulips, in 1. Songs, no. 6, first published 1923
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Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]2. Doll's boy's asleep  [sung text not yet checked]
Doll's boy's asleep [ ... ]
Authorship:
- by E. E. (Edward Estlin) Cummings (1894 - 1962), no title, appears in Tulips and Chimneys, in 1. Tulips, in 1. Songs, no. 5, first published 1923, 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.3. hist whist  [sung text not yet checked]
hist whist little ghostthings tip-toe twinkle-toe little [itchy]1 witches and tingling goblins hob-a-nob hob-a-nob little hoppy happy toad in tweeds tweeds little itchy mousies with scuttling eyes rustle and run and hidehidehide whisk whisk look out for the old woman with the wart on her nose what she'll do to yer nobody knows for she knows the devil ooch the devil ouch the devil ach the great green dancing devil devil devil devil wheeEEE
Authorship:
- by E. E. (Edward Estlin) Cummings (1894 - 1962), no title, appears in Tulips and Chimneys, in 1. Tulips, in 2. Chansons innocentes, no. 2, first published 1923
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View original text (without footnotes)1 W. Mayer: "twitchy"
Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]
4. Thy fingers make early flowers  [sung text not yet checked]
thy fingers make early flowers of all things. thy hair mostly the hours love: a smothness which sings, saying (though love be a day) do not fear, we will go amaying. thy whitest feet crisply are straying. always thy moist eyes at kisses are playing, whose strangeness much says; singing (though love be a day) for which girl art thou flowers bringing? to be thy lips is a sweet thing and small. Death, thee i call rich beyond wishing if this thou catch, else missing. (though love be a day and life be nothing, it shall not stop kissing).
Authorship:
- by E. E. (Edward Estlin) Cummings (1894 - 1962), no title, appears in Tulips and Chimneys, in 1. Tulips, in 1. Songs, no. 3, first published 1923
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Research team for this page: Emily Ezust [Administrator] , Garrett Medlock [Guest Editor]5. It may not always be so  [sung text not yet checked]
it may not always be so;and i say that if your lips,which i have loved,should touch another's,and your dear strong fingers clutch his heart,as mine in time not far away; if on another's face your sweet hair lay in such a silence as i know,or such great writhing words as,uttering overmuch, stand helplessly before the spirit at bay; if this should be,i say if this should be-- you of my heart,send me a little word; that i may go unto him,and take his hands, saying,Accept all happiness from me. Then shall i turn my face,and hear one bird sing terribly afar in the lost lands.
Authorship:
- by E. E. (Edward Estlin) Cummings (1894 - 1962), no title, appears in Tulips and Chimneys, in 2. Chimneys, in 2. Sonnets - Unrealities, no. 1, first published 1917
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Confirmed with E. E. Cummings, Tulips and Chimneys, New York: Liveright, 1976, page 140.
Research team for this page: Emily Ezust [Administrator] , Poom Andrew Pipatjarasgit [Guest Editor]
6. Jimmie's got a goil  [sung text not yet checked]
Jimmie's got a goil [ ... ]
Authorship:
- by E. E. (Edward Estlin) Cummings (1894 - 1962), appears in is 5, first published 1926, 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.