by Carl Sandburg (1878 - 1967)
Long ago I learned how to sleep
Language: English
Long ago I learned how to sleep, In an old apple orchard where the wind swept by counting its money and throwing it away, In a wind-gaunt orchard where the limbs forked out and listened or never listened at all, In a passel of trees where the branches trapped the wind into whistling, "Who, who are you?" I slept with my head in an elbow on a summer afternoon and there I took a sleep lesson. There I went away saying: I know why they sleep, I know how they trap the tricky winds. Long ago I learned how to listen to the singing wind and how to forget and how to hear the deep whine, Slapping and lapsing under the day blue and the night stars: Who, who are you? Who can ever forget listening to the wind go by counting its money and throwing it away?
About the headline (FAQ)
Text Authorship:
- by Carl Sandburg (1878 - 1967), "Wind Song", 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 Philip Glass (b. 1937), "Wind Song" [ SATB chorus a cappella ] [sung text not yet checked]
- by Frederick Koch (b. 1923), no title [ mezzo-soprano and string quartet ], from String Quartet, second movement [sung text not yet checked]
Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]
This text was added to the website: 2007-07-07
Line count: 19
Word count: 148