Songs to Poems of Emily Dickinson

Song Cycle by Otto Luening (1900 - 1996)

?. I felt a cleavage  [sung text not yet checked]

Language: English 
I felt a clearing in my mind
  As if my brain had split;
I tried to match it, seam by seam,
  But could not make them fit.

The thought behind I strove to join
  Unto the thought before,
But sequence ravelled out of reach
  Like balls upon a floor.

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Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):

  • GER German (Deutsch) (Walter A. Aue) , copyright © 2010, (re)printed on this website with kind permission

Confirmed with Poems by Emily Dickinson. Third Series, ed by Mabel Loomis Todd, Boston: Roberts Brothers, 1896.

Note: in later editions, in stanza 1 line 1, the word "clearing" is replaced by "cleavage" or "cleaving".


Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

?. Soul, wilt thou toss again?  [sung text not yet checked]

Language: English 
Soul, wilt thou toss again?
By just such a hazard
Hundreds have lost, indeed,
But tens have won an all.

Angels' breathless ballot
Lingers to record thee;
Imps in eager caucus
Raffle for my soul.

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Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

?. Our share of night to bear  [sung text not yet checked]

Language: English 
Our share of night to bear,
Our share of morning,
Our blank in bliss to fill,
Our blank in scorning.

Here a star, and there a star,
Some lose their way.
Here a mist, and there a mist,
Afterwards - day!

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Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):

  • GER German (Deutsch) (Bertram Kottmann) , "Mit an der Nacht zu tragen", copyright © 2016, (re)printed on this website with kind permission

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

?. Few, yet enough  [sung text not yet checked]

Language: English 
Few get enough, — enough is one;
To that ethereal throng
Have not each one of us the right
To stealthily belong?

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Confirmed with Poems by Emily Dickinson. Third Series, ed by Mabel Loomis Todd, Boston: Roberts Brothers, 1896.


Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

?. Hope is the thing with feathers  [sung text not yet checked]

Language: English 
Hope is [the]1 thing with feathers
That perches in the soul,
And sings the tune without the words,
And never stops at all,

And sweetest in the gale is heard;
And sore must be the storm
That could abash the little bird
That kept so many warm.

I've heard it in the chillest land,
And on the strangest sea;
Yet, never, in extremity,
It asked a crumb of me.

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Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):

  • FRE French (Français) (Guy Laffaille) , copyright © 2018, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
  • GER German (Deutsch) (Walter A. Aue) , copyright © 2010, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
  • GER German (Deutsch) [singable] (Bertram Kottmann) , copyright © 2011, (re)printed on this website with kind permission

View original text (without footnotes)
1 Syderman: "a"; further changes may exist not noted.

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

?. If I can stop one heart from breaking  [sung text not yet checked]

Language: English 
If I can stop one heart from breaking,
I shall not live in vain;
If I can ease one life the aching,
Or cool one pain,
Or help one fainting robin
Unto his nest again,
I shall not live in vain.

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Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

?. The show is not the show  [sung text not yet checked]

Language: English 
The show is not the show,
But they that go.
Menagerie to me
My neighbor be.
Fair play -
Both went to see.

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Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

?. Experiment to me  [sung text not yet checked]

Language: English 
Experiment to me
Is every one I meet.
If it contain a kernel?
The figure of a nut

Presents upon a tree,
Equally plausibly;
But meat within is requisite,
To squirrels and to me.

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Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):

  • ITA Italian (Italiano) (Ferdinando Albeggiani) , "Per me un esperimento", copyright © 2009, (re)printed on this website with kind permission

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

?. When I hoped I feared  [sung text not yet checked]

Language: English 
When I hoped I feared,
Since I hoped I dared;
Everywhere alone
As a church remain;

Spectre cannot harm,
Serpent cannot charm;
He deposes doom,
Who hath suffered him.

Text Authorship:

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Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]
Total word count: 342