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A spider sewed at night Without a light Upon an arc of white. If ruff it was of dame Or shroud of Gnome, Himself, himself inform. Of immortality His strategy Was physiognomy.
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Authorship
- by Emily Dickinson (1830 - 1886), no title, appears in Poems by Emily Dickinson, first published 1891 [author's text checked 1 time against a primary source]
Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive)
- by Ernst Bacon (1898 - 1990), "A spider", published 1971 [ SA chorus and piano ], from Nature [sung text checked 1 time]
- by Ernst Bacon (1898 - 1990), "A spider", published 1944 [ voice and piano ], from Songs from Emily Dickinson: Nature Time and Space - Volume 1, two settings [sung text checked 1 time]
- by Donald Grantham (b. 1947), "A spider sewed at night", published 1983 [ SATB chorus a cappella ], from Seven Choral Settings of Poems by Emily Dickinson [sung text not yet checked]
- by Juliana Hall (b. 1958), "A spider sewed at night", 1987 [ soprano and piano ], from Night Dances - 6 songs for Soprano and Piano, no. 5 [sung text not yet checked]
Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):
- FRE French (Français) (Guy Laffaille) , copyright © 2017, (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) (Bertram Kottmann) , copyright © 2017, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
- ITA Italian (Italiano) (Ferdinando Albeggiani) , copyright © 2009, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]
This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 9
Word count: 32
Die Spinne hat bei Nacht und ohne Licht ein weißes Netz gemacht: Besatz fürs Damenkleid, ein Gnomenkleid? Sie gibt sich selbst Bescheid. Denn Unvergänglichkeit verfolgte sie mit Physiognomie.
About the headline (FAQ)
Authorship
- Translation from English to German (Deutsch) copyright © 2017 by Bertram Kottmann, (re)printed on this website with kind permission. To reprint and distribute this author's work for concert programs, CD booklets, etc., you must ask the copyright-holder(s) directly for permission. If you receive no response, you must consider it a refusal.
Bertram Kottmann. Contact: BKottmann (AT) t-online.de
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- a text in English by Emily Dickinson (1830 - 1886), no title, appears in Poems by Emily Dickinson, first published 1891
This text was added to the website: 2017-05-07
Line count: 9
Word count: 28