The wind tapped like a tired man

The wind tapped like a tired man

Language: English

Available translation(s): GER

The wind tapped like a tired man,
And like a host, "Come in,"
I boldly answered; entered then
My residence within

A rapid, footless guest,
To offer whom a chair
Were as impossible as hand
A sofa to the air.

No bone had he to bind him,
His speech was like the push
Of numerous humming-birds at once
From a superior bush.

His countenance a billow,
His fingers, if he pass,
Let go a music, as of tunes
Blown tremulous in glass.

He visited, still flitting;
Then, like a timid man,
Again he tapped - 't was flurriedly -
And I became alone.

About the headline (FAQ)

Authorship:

by Emily Dickinson (1830 - 1886), no title, appears in Poems by Emily Dickinson, first published 1891 [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 Rudolf Escher (1912 - 1980), "The wind tapped like a tired man", 1955, published 1956 [ mixed chorus of 7-10 voices ], from Songs of Love and Eternity, no. 4 [sung text not yet checked]
by David Horowicz (b. 1960), "The wind tapped like a tired man", 1988 [ soprano, viola, mandolin, guitar ], from Five songs on poems of Emily Dickinson, no. 5 [sung text not yet checked]
by George Perle (1915 - 2009), "The wind tapped like a tired man" [ voice and piano ], from Thirteen Dickinson Songs, no. 6 [sung text not yet checked]

Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 20
Word count: 103