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by Louis Untermeyer (1885 - 1977)

Mend the World
Language: English 
Come back. Let me give up this climb, these searches
     In trackless time and overwhelming space;
Here are tall ghosts that once were elms and birches,
     And this small field is a deserted place.

The fern you found will never learn to scatter
     Its yield upon the ground that you have left;
The veery's round, high call will turn to chatter;
     Sere are these acres, weary and bereft.

Against the skies earth rears its broken scaffold,
     Where night, so friendly once, is but a black
Stupendous ruin where the mind is baffled;
     And the blind heart cries out its endless lack:
     "Come, mend the world! Come back!"

Text Authorship:

  • by Louis Untermeyer (1885 - 1977) [author's text not yet checked 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 Timothy Hoekman , "Mend the World", 1989, published 1992 [ voice and piano ], from American Lyrics, no. 3 [sung text not yet checked]

Researcher for this page: Malcolm Wren [Guest Editor]

This text was added to the website: 2020-08-27
Line count: 13
Word count: 107

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