by Emily Dickinson (1830 - 1886)
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 against a primary source]
- 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 against a primary source]
- 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 against a primary source]
Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):
- GER German (Deutsch) (Bertram Kottmann) , copyright © 2018, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
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