by Carl Sandburg (1878 - 1967)
Back Yard
Language: English
Shine on, O moon of summer. Shine to the leaves of grass, catalpa and oak, All silver under your rain to-night. An Italian boy is sending songs to you to-night from an accordion. A Polish boy is out with his best girl; they marry next month; to-night they are throwing you kisses. An old man next door is dreaming over a sheen that sits in a cherry tree in his back yard. The clocks say I must go - I stay here sitting on the back porch drinking white thoughts you rain down. Shine on, O moon, Shake out more and more silver changes.
Text Authorship:
- by Carl Sandburg (1878 - 1967), "Back Yard", appears in Chicago Poems, first published 1916 [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 Sam Raphling (b. 1910), "Back Yard", published 1973 [SATB chorus a cappella], from Four Chicago Poems [text not verified]
Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]
This text was added to the website: 2007-07-07
Line count: 9
Word count: 103