This is the garden | this is the garden:colours come and go

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

this is the garden:colours come and go

Language: English

this is the garden:colours come and go,
frail azures fluttering from night's outer wing
strong silent greens serenely lingering,
absolute lights like baths of golden snow.
This is the garden:pursed lips do blow
upon cool flutes within wide glooms,and sing
(of harps celestial to the quivering string)
invisible faces hauntingly and slow.

This is the garden.   Time shall surely reap
and on Death's blade lie many a flower curled,
in other lands where other songs be sung;
yet stand They here enraptured,as among
The slow deep trees perpetual of sleep
some silver-fingered fountain steals the world.

About the headline (FAQ)

Note: this poem entered the public domain in 2021.

Text Authorship:

by E. E. (Edward Estlin) Cummings (1894 - 1962), no title, appears in XLI Poems, in 5. Sonnets, no. 4, first published 1925 [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 Gary Bachlund (b. 1947), "this is the garden", 2005 [ soprano and piano ] [sung text checked 1 time]
by Richard Rodney Bennett (1936 - 2012), "this is the Garden", 1984 [ voice and piano ], confirmed with a CD booklet [sung text checked 1 time]
by Judith Cloud (1954 - 2023), "this is the garden:colours come and go", copyright © 2009 [ high voice and piano ], from I Spill My Soul, no. 2, CloudWalk Press [sung text checked 1 time]
by David Leo Diamond (1915 - 2005), "This is the garden", published 1940 [ SATB chorus a cappella ] [sung text not yet checked]
by Philip Glass (b. 1937), "This is the garden" [ satb chorus a cappella ] [sung text not yet checked]
by Ellen Mandel , "this is the garden" [sung text not yet checked]
by Robert Manno (b. 1944), "This is the garden", 1967 [ SATB chorus ] [sung text not yet checked]
by Vincent Persichetti (1915 - 1987), "This is the garden", op. 46 no. 1, published 1952 [ SSA chorus a cappella ] [sung text not yet checked]
by Edwin Roxburgh (b. 1937), "this is the garden", from 3 songs, no. 2 [sung text not yet checked]
by Ramon Zupko (b. 1932), "This is the garden" [ SSA chorus, woodwinds, strings, and percussion ] [sung text not yet checked]

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

This text was added to the website: 2005-06-08
Line count: 14
Word count: 96