Now horses' hooves are treading earth again To start the wheat from darkness into day, And along the heavy field go seven men With hands on ploughs and eyes on furrowing clay. Six of the men are old; but one, a boy, Knows in his heart that more than fields are sown -- For spring is ploughing heaven with rows of joy In the voice of one high bird, singing alone.
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Text Authorship:
- by Witter Bynner (1881 - 1968), "The sowers", appears in Against the Cold, first published 1940 [author's text not yet checked 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 Ned Rorem (1923 - 2022), "The sowers", published 1980 [ medium voice, violin, viola, violoncello, and piano ], from Santa Fe Songs, no. 12 [sung text checked 1 time]
Researcher for this page: John Versmoren
This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 8
Word count: 70