by Willa Cather (1873 - 1947)
Spanish Johnny
Language: English
The old West, the old time, The old wind singing through The red, red grass a thousand miles -- And, Spanish Johnny, you! He'd sit beside the water ditch When all his herd was in, And never mind a child, but sing To his mandolin. The big stars, the blue night, The moon enchanted [lane]1: The olive man who never spoke, But sang the songs of Spain. His speech with men was wicked talk -- To hear it was a sin, But those were golden things he said To his mandolin. The gold songs, the gold stars, The world so golden then: And the hand so tender to a child -- Had killed so many men. He died a hard death long ago Before the Road came in -- The night before he swung, he sang To his mandolin.
View original text (without footnotes)
1 Baxter: "plain"
Researcher for this page: Garth Baxter
1 Baxter: "plain"
Authorship:
- by Willa Cather (1873 - 1947), "Spanish Johnny" [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), "Spanish Johnny", 2009 [mezzo-soprano and piano] [ sung text checked 1 time]
- by Garth Baxter (b. 1946), "Spanish Johnny" [voice and guitar], from From the Heart: Three American Women - Willa, no. 4 [ sung text checked 1 time]
Researcher for this page: Garth Baxter
This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 24
Word count: 135