by Carl Sandburg (1878 - 1967)
Flying Fish
Language: English
I have lived in many half-worlds myself … and so I know you.
I leaned at a deck rail watching a monotonous sea, the
same circling birds and the same plunge of fur-
rows carved by the plowing keel.
I leaned so ... and you fluttered struggling between
two waves in the air now … and then
under the water and out again … a fish … a bird
… a fin thing … a wing thing.
Child of water, child of air, fin thing and wing thing
… I have lived in many half-worlds myself … and
so I know you.
Confirmed with Carl Sandburg, The Complete Poems of Carl Sandburg, Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1970, p.236
Text Authorship:
- by Carl Sandburg (1878 - 1967), "Flying Fish" [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 Gwyneth Walker (b. 1947), "Flying Fish", 2018/2022, copyright © 2023 [ tenor and piano ], from The Great Lakes, no. 5b, E.C.Schirmer
Score: ECS Publishing [external link] [sung text not yet checked]
Researcher for this page: Joost van der Linden [Guest Editor]
This text was added to the website: 2026-02-21
Line count: 11
Word count: 101