Six American Songs, op. 14

Song Cycle by Derek Healey (b. 1936)

1. Buffalo Bill  [sung text not yet checked]

Language: English 
Buffalo Bill 's
defunct
        who used to
        ride a watersmooth-silver
                                  stallion
and break onetwothreefourfive pigeonsjustlikethat
                                                   Jesus

he was a handsome man
                      and what i want to know is
how do you like your blueeyed boy
Mister Death

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Confirmed with E. E. Cummings, Tulips and Chimneys, New York: Liveright, 1976, page 85.

First published as "III" in Seven Poems, in The Dial, Vol. 68 no. 1, January 1920

Research team for this page: Emily Ezust [Administrator] , Poom Andrew Pipatjarasgit [Guest Editor]

2. To One in Paradise  [sung text not yet checked]

Language: English 
Thou wast all that to me, love,
    For which my soul did pine -- 
A green isle in the sea, love,
    A fountain and a shrine, 
All wreathed with fairy fruits and flowers,
    And all the flowers were mine.

Ah, dream too bright to last!
   Ah, starry Hope! that didst arise 
But to be overcast!
   A voice from out the Future cries, 
"On! on!" -- but o'er the Past
   (Dim gulf!) my spirit hovering lies 
Mute, motionless, aghast!

For, alas! alas! with me
    The light of Life is o'er! 
No more -- no more -- no more --
   (Such language holds the solemn sea 
To the sands upon the shore)
   Shall bloom the thunder-blasted tree, 
Or the stricken eagle soar!

And all my days are trances,
   And all my nightly dreams 
Are where thy gray eye glances,
   And where thy footsteps gleams --
In what ethereal dances,
   By what eternal streams.

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3. The Purist  [sung text not yet checked]

Language: English 
I give you now Professor Twist
 [ ... ]

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4. Morning at the Window  [sung text not yet checked]

Language: English 
They are rattling breakfast plates in basement kitchens,
And along the trampled edges of the street
I am aware of the damp souls of housemaids
Sprouting despondently at area gates.

The brown waves of fog toss up to me
Twisted faces from the bottom of the street,
And tear from a passer-by with muddy skirts
An aimless smile that hovers in the air
And vanishes along the level of the roofs.

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5. What the Bullet sang  [sung text not yet checked]

Language: English 
O joy of creation,	 
        To be!	 
O rapture, to fly	 
        And be free!	 
Be the battle lost or won,	         
Though [its]1 smoke shall hide the sun,	 
I shall find my love—the one	 
        Born for me!	 
 
I shall know him where he stands	 
        All alone,	  
With the power in his hands	 
        Not o'erthrown;	 
I shall know him by his face,	 
By his godlike front and grace;	 
I shall hold him for a space	  
        All my own!	 
 
It is he—O my love!	 
        So bold!	 
It is I—all thy love	 
        Foretold!	  
It is I—O love, what bliss!	 
Dost thou answer to my kiss?	 
O sweetheart! what is this	 
        [Lieth]2 there so cold?

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1 Dougherty: "the"
2 Dougherty: "lying"

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6. New Hampshire  [sung text not yet checked]

Language: English 
Children's voices in the orchard
 [ ... ]

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  • by T. S. Eliot (1888 - 1965), "New Hampshire", appears in Landscapes, first published 1936, copyright ©

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First published in Virginia Quarterly Review, April 1934 as one of "Words for Music"
Total word count: 478