by Vachel Lindsay (1879 - 1931)
Two old crows sat on a fence rail
Language: English
Two old crows sat on a fence rail,
Thinking of effect and cause,
Of weeds and flowers,
And nature's laws.
One of them muttered, one of them stuttered,
One of them stuttered, one of them muttered.
Each of them thought far more than he uttered.
One crow asked the other crow a riddle:
The muttering crow asked the stuttering crow,
"Why does a bee have a sword to his fiddle?"
"Bee-cause," said the other crow,
("Bee-cause,)
B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B-cause,"
Just then a bee flew close to their rail: --
"Buzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz zzzzzzzzz
zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz ZZZZZZZZZ."
And those two black crows turned pale,
And away those crows did sail.
Why?
B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B-cause,"
B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B-cause,"
"Buzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz zzzzzzzzz
zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz ZZZZZZZZZ."
About the headline (FAQ)
Text Authorship:
- by Vachel Lindsay (1879 - 1931), "Two Old Crows", appears in The Chinese Nightingale and Other Poems, first published 1920 [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 Norman Dello Joio (1913 - 2008), "Of crows and clusters", published 1972 [ satb chorus and piano ], note: textual changes not noted above [sung text not yet checked]
- by Harvey Enders (1892 - 1947), "Two Old Crows (An exercise in stuttering for male voices)", published 1932 [ TTBB chorus a cappella ] [sung text not yet checked]
- by Louis Gruenberg (1884 - 1964), "Two Old Crows", op. 22 no. 7, published 1925 [ medium voice and piano ], from Animals and Insects, no. 7 [sung text checked 1 time]
- by Juliana Hall (b. 1958), "Two Old Crows" [ soprano and piano ] [sung text checked 1 time]
- by Eunice Lea Kettering (b. 1906), "Two Old Crows", published 1950 [ SSAA chorus and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]
This text was added to the website: 2008-07-02
Line count: 23
Word count: 152