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by Amy Lowell (1874 - 1925)

This Perfect Beauty
Language: English 
Chosen for Diff
’T is you that are the music, not your song.
  The song is but a door which, opening wide,
  Lets forth the pent-up melody inside,
Your spirit’s harmony, which clear and strong
Sing but of you. Throughout your whole life long
  Your songs, your thoughts, your doings, each divide
  This perfect beauty; waves within a tide,
Or single notes amid a glorious throng.
  The song of earth has many different chords;
Ocean has many moods and many tones
  Yet always ocean. In the damp Spring woods
The painted trillium smiles, while crisp pine cones
  Autumn alone can ripen. So is this
  One music with a thousand cadences.

Text Authorship:

  • by Amy Lowell (1874 - 1925) [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 Jenni Brandon (b. 1977), "This Perfect Beauty", copyright © 2015 [ ssa chorus, flute and piano ], Santa Barbara Music Publishing
        Publisher: Santa Barbara Music 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: 2026-08-27
Line count: 14
Word count: 107

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