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by Amy Lowell (1874 - 1925)

Music
Language: English 
The neighbour sits in his window and plays the flute.
From my bed I can hear him,
And the round notes flutter and tap about the room,
And hit against each other,
Blurring to unexpected chords.
It is very beautiful,
With the little flute-notes all about me,
In the darkness.

In the daytime,
The neighbour eats bread and onions with one hand
And copies music with the other.
He is fat and has a bald head,
So I do not look at him,
But run quickly past his window.
There is always the sky to look at,
Or the water in the well!

But when night comes and he plays his flute,
I think of him as a young man,
With gold seals hanging from his watch,
And a blue coat with silver buttons.
As I lie in my bed
The flute-notes push against my ears and lips,
And I go to sleep, dreaming. 

Text Authorship:

  • by Amy Lowell (1874 - 1925), "Music", appears in Sword Blades and Poppy Seed, first published 1914 [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 Celius Dougherty (1902 - 1986), "Music", published 1953 [ medium voice, piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
  • by Simon Sargon (b. 1938), "Music", 2003 [ soprano, flute, and piano ], from A River of Honey, no. 2 [sung text checked 1 time]

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

This text was added to the website: 2005-12-15
Line count: 23
Word count: 154

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