by Carl Sandburg (1878 - 1967)
Cool Tombs
Language: English
When Abraham Lincoln was shoveled into the tombs, he forgot the copperheads and the assassin ... in the dust, in the cool tombs. And Ulysses Grant lost all thought of con men and Wall Street, cash and collateral turned ashes ... in the dust, in the cool tombs. Pocahontas' body, lovely as a poplar, sweet as a red haw in November or a pawpaw in May, did she wonder? does she remember? ... in the dust, in the cool tombs? Take any streetful of people buying clothes and groceries, cheering a hero or throwing confetti and blowing tin horns ... tell me if the lovers are losers ... tell me if any get more than the lovers ... in the dust ... in the cool tombs.
Text Authorship:
- by Carl Sandburg (1878 - 1967), "Cool Tombs", appears in Cornhuskers, first published 1918 [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), "Cool Tombs", published 1966 [ TTBB chorus, piano, and percussion ], from Chants and Litanies of Carl Sandburg [sung text not yet checked]
- by Sam Raphling (b. 1910), "Cool Tombs", published 1952 [ medium voice and piano ], from Poems by Carl Sandburg, no. 1 [sung text not yet checked]
Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]
This text was added to the website: 2007-07-07
Line count: 11
Word count: 119