by Carl Sandburg (1878 - 1967)
Finish
Language: English
Death comes once, let it be easy. Ring one bell for me once, let it go at that. Or ring no bell at all, better yet. Sing one song if I die. Sing John Brown's Body or Shout All Over God's Heaven. Or sing nothing at all, better yet. Death comes once, let it be easy.
Text Authorship:
- by Carl Sandburg (1878 - 1967), "Finish", appears in Smoke and Steel, first published 1920 [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 Wilfrid Howard Mellers (b. 1914), "Finish", published 1966 [ TTBB chorus, piano, and percussion ], from Chants and Litanies of Carl Sandburg [sung text not yet checked]
Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]
This text was added to the website: 2007-07-07
Line count: 7
Word count: 56