by Vachel Lindsay (1879 - 1931)
The moon? It is a griffin's egg
Language: English
(What Grandpa told the Children)
The moon? It is a griffin's egg,
Hatching to-morrow night.
And how the little boys will watch
With shouting and delight
To see him break the shell and stretch
And creep across the sky.
The boys will laugh. The little girls,
I fear, may hide and cry.
Yet gentle will the griffin be,
Most decorous and fat,
And walk up to the Milky Way
And lap it like a cat.
About the headline (FAQ)
Text Authorship:
- by Vachel Lindsay (1879 - 1931), "Yet Gentle will the Griffin be", appears in The Congo and Other Poems, in 4. Fourth Section: Twenty Poems in which the Moon is the Principal Figure of Speech, in 1. First Section: Moon Poems for the Children/Fairy-tales for the Children, no. 7 [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 Jake Heggie (b. 1961), "Yet Gentle Will the Griffin Be (What Grandpa told the children)", 1998, first performed 1998 [voice and piano], from Songs to the Moon, Part 1: "Fairy-Tales for the Children", no. 8. [text not verified]
- by M. Ryan Taylor (b. 1972), "What Grandpa Told the Children", 1999 [voice and piano], from The Moon Songs, no. 1. [text not verified]
Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]
This text was added to the website: 2007-07-29
Line count: 13
Word count: 70