O sweet spontaneous
earth how often have
the
doting

            fingers of
purient philosophers pinched
and
poked

thee
,has the naughty thumb
of science prodded
thy

       beauty .how
often have religions taken
thee upon their scraggy knees
squeezing and

buffeting thee that thou mightest conceive
gods
         (but
true

to the incomparable
couch of death thy
rhythmic
lover

        thou answerest


them only with


                        spring)

About the headline (FAQ)

First published as no. II in Five Songs in The Dial, Volume 68 no. 5, May 1920

Text Authorship:

• by E. E. (Edward Estlin) Cummings (1894 - 1962), no title, appears in Tulips and Chimneys, in 1. Tulips, in 5. La Guerre, no. 2, first published 1920 [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 Gary Bachlund (b. 1947), "O sweet spontaneous earth", 2007 [ high voice and piano ] [sung text checked 1 time]
• by Juliana Hall (b. 1958), "O sweet spontaneous", 2016, copyright © 2018, first performed 2018 [ soprano, unaccompanied ], from In Spring -- 3 Songs for Unaccompanied Soprano on Poems by E. E. Cummings, no. 1, E. C. Schirmer Music Company, Inc., a division of ECS Publishing Group [sung text checked 1 time]
• by Dexter Morrill (b. 1938), "O sweet spontaneous earth" [ SATB chorus and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

This text was added to the website: 2008-02-12
Line count: 27
Word count: 62