by Carl Sandburg (1878 - 1967)
Mag
Language: English
I wish to God I never saw you, Mag.
I wish you never quit your job and came along with me.
I wish we never bought a license and a white dress
For you to get married in the day we ran off to a minister
And told him we would love each other and take care of
each other
Always and always long as the sun and the rain lasts anywhere.
Yes, I'm wishing now you lived somewhere away from here
And I was a bum on the bumpers a thousand miles away
dead broke.
I wish the kids had never come
And rent and coal and clothes to pay for
And a grocery man calling for cash,
Every day cash for beans and prunes.
I wish to God I never saw you, Mag.
I wish to God the kids had never come.
Text Authorship:
- by Carl Sandburg (1878 - 1967), "Mag", 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 Charles Edward Ives (1874 - 1954), "Mag" [ baritone and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
- by Sergius Kagen (1909 - 1964), "Mag", published 1950 [ baritone and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
- by Sam Raphling (b. 1910), "Mag", published 1952 [ medium voice and piano ], from Poems by Carl Sandburg, no. 4 [sung text not yet checked]
Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]
This text was added to the website: 2007-07-08
Line count: 16
Word count: 144