by Conrad Aiken (1889 - 1973)
White hours like snow, white hours like...
Language: English
White hours like snow, white hours like eternal snow ... Long white streets jewelled with lights ... Our steps are muffled and silent, we scarcely know How swiftly we cross the nights. I would like to touch this snow with the fire of a dream, With the mouth of a dream. And turn it all To petals of roses ... I would like to touch you, too, And change you into the chord of music I knew. Can you not change?... Run back again to April? Laugh out at me from among young lilac leaves?... Play with your jewels, and sing! Feeling the earth beneath you float with spring!... You talk in an even tone, I answer you; And all about us seems to say Peace ... peace ... the hills and streets are cold. You are growing cold.
About the headline (FAQ)
Text Authorship:
- by Conrad Aiken (1889 - 1973), no title, appears in Nocturne of Remembered Spring and Other Poems, in White Nocturne, no. 7, first published 1917 [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 Bainbridge Crist (1883 - 1969), "White hours like snow", published 1926. [high voice and piano] [text not verified]
Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]
This text was added to the website: 2008-07-12
Line count: 16
Word count: 134