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by Evelyn Scott (1893 - 1963)

Crowds
Language: English 
     The sky along the street a gauzy yellow:
The narrow lights burn tall in the twilight.

     The cool air sags,
Heavy with the thickness of bodies.
I am elated with bodies.
They have stolen me from myself.
I love the way they beat me to life,
Pay me for their cruelties.
In the close intimacy I feel for them
There is the indecency I like.

     I belong to them,
To these whom I hate;
And because we can never know each other,
Or be anything to each other,
Though we have been the most,
I sell so much of me that could bring a better price

Confirmed with Evelyn Scott, Precipitations, The Project Gutenberg, 2003


Text Authorship:

  • by Evelyn Scott (1893 - 1963), "Crowds", appears in Precipitations, first published 1920, copyright status unknown [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 Rachel Devore Fogarty , "Crowds", 2017 [ mezzo-soprano, flute and harp ], from Manhattan: The Unpeopled City and Crowds, no. 5 [sung text not yet checked]

Researcher for this page: Joost van der Linden [Guest Editor]

This text was added to the website: 2025-10-08
Line count: 16
Word count: 107

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