by
Emily Dickinson (1830 - 1886)
Two butterflies went out at noon
Language: English
Two butterflies went out at noon
And waltzed [above a stream]1,
Then stepped straight through the firmament
And rested on a beam;
And then together bore away
Upon a shining sea, -
Though never yet, in any port,
Their coming mentioned be.
If spoken by the distant bird,
If met in ether sea
By frigate or by merchantman,
[Report was not]2 to me.
About the headline (FAQ)
View original text (without footnotes)
1 Hoekman: "upon a Farm"
2 Hoekman: "No notice was"
Text Authorship:
Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive):
- by Robert F. Baksa (b. 1938), "Two butterflies went out at noon", published 1978 [ mezzo-soprano, piano ], from Emily Dickinson Songs, no. 8 [sung text not yet checked]
- by Ray Green (b. 1908), "Butterflies", published 1954 [ SSA chorus a cappella ], from Three Choral Songs [sung text not yet checked]
- by Daron Aric Hagen (b. 1961), "Two butterflies" [ voice and piano ], from Songs of Experience, no. 6 [sung text not yet checked]
- by Timothy Hoekman , "Two butterflies went out at noon", 2002, published 2006 [ voice and piano ], from To Make a Prairie, no. 4 [sung text not yet checked]
- by John Brodbin Kennedy , "Two butterflies went out at noon", published 1966 [ SS chorus a cappella ], from Sails, Robins, and Butterflies [sung text not yet checked]
Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):
- GER German (Deutsch) (Bertram Kottmann) , no title, copyright © 2018, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
Research team for this page: Emily Ezust
[Administrator] , Malcolm Wren
[Guest Editor] This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 12
Word count: 65
Zwei Falter flogen mittags aus
Language: German (Deutsch) after the English
Zwei Falter flogen mittags aus,
gaukelten überm Bach,
durchtanzten dann das Firmament -
auf Lichtstrahl Rast hernach.
Drauf schwebten sie zusammen fort,
über ein glitzernd’ Meer,
doch wurde nie an einem Port
ihr Kommen je bemerkt.
Ob sie der ferne Vogel sprach,
ob sie auf lichtem Meer
ein Seemann oder Kaufmann traf,
dies drang nie zu mir her.
About the headline (FAQ)
Text Authorship:
Based on:
This text was added to the website: 2018-06-22
Line count: 12
Word count: 57
