Emily's Birds (Michael Gray)
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- (Posted 2022-04-14) CPDL #68840:
- Editor: Michael Gray (submitted 2022-04-14). Score information: Letter, 9 pages, 470 kB Copyright: CC BY NC ND
- Edition notes: "Emily's Birds" by Michael A. Gray is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
General Information
Title: Emily's Birds
Composer: Michael Gray
Lyricist: Emily Dickinson
Number of voices: 1v Voicing: Unison
Genre: Secular, Children's song
Language: English
Instruments: Piano
First published: 2022
Description: Three short songs set for Unison Children's Chorus
External websites:
Original text and translations
English text
I
To hear an Oriole sing
May be a common thing -
Or only a divine.
It it not of the Bird
Who sings the same, unheard,
As unto Crowd -
The Fashion of the Ear
Attireth that it hear
In Dun, or fair -
So whether it be Rune,
Or whether it be none
Is of within.
The "Tune is in the Tree -"
The Skeptic - showith me -
"No sir! In Thee!"
II
At Half past Three, a single Bird
Unto a silent Sky
Propounded but a single term
Of cautious melody.
At Half past Four, Experiment
Had subjugated test
And lo, Her silver Principle
Supplanted all the rest.
At Half past Seven, Element
Nor Implement, be seen -
And Place was where the Presence was
Circumference between.
III
A Bird came down the Walk -
He did not know I saw -
He bit an Angleworm in halves
And ate the fellow, raw,
And then he drank a Dew
From a convenient Grass -
And then hopped sidewise to the Wall
To let a Beetle pass -
He glanced with rapid eyes
That hurried all around -
They looked like frightened Beads, I thought -
He stirred his Velvet Head
Like one in danger, Cautious,
I offered him a Crumb
And he unrolled his feathers
And rowed him softer home -
Than Oars divide the Ocean,
Too silver for a seam -
Or Butterflies, off Banks of Noon
Leap, plashless as they swim.
-Emily Dickinson