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by Carl Sandburg (1878 - 1967)

Happiness
Language: English 
I asked the professors who teach the meaning of life to tell me what is happiness.
And I went to famous executives who boss the work of thousands of men.
They all shook their heads and gave me a smile as though I was trying to fool with them
And then one Sunday afternoon I wandered out along the Desplaines river
And I saw a crowd of Hungarians under the trees with their women 
    and children and a keg of beer and an accordion.

Text Authorship:

  • by Carl Sandburg (1878 - 1967), appears in Chicago Poems, first published 1916 [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 Gary Bachlund (b. 1947), "Happiness", 2007 [medium voice and piano] [ sung text checked 1 time]

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

This text was added to the website: 2008-02-12
Line count: 6
Word count: 84

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