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by E. E. (Edward Estlin) Cummings (1894 - 1962)

who knows if the moon's a balloon
 (Sung text for setting by D. Argento)
 Matches original text
Language: English 
who knows if the moon's        
a balloon,coming out of a keen city
in the sky--filled with pretty people?
(and if you and i should

get into it,if they
should take me and take you into their balloon,
why then           
we'd go up higher with all the pretty people        

than houses and steeples and clouds:
go sailing
away and away sailing into a keen
city which nobody's ever visited,where

always
          it's
                   Spring)and everyone's
in love and flowers pick themselves

Note: this poem entered the public domain in 2021.

Composition:

    Set to music by Dominick Argento (1927 - 2019), "who knows if the moon's a balloon", from Songs about Spring, no. 1

Text Authorship:

  • by E. E. (Edward Estlin) Cummings (1894 - 1962), no title, appears in & [AND], in 2. N, in 1. &:Seven Poems, no. 7, first published 1925

See other settings of this text.


Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 16
Word count: 78

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