Six Short Poems (PDF)
This song cycle for voice and piano features poetry by Emily Dickinson, Christina Rosetti, William Carlos Williams, Alfred Tennyson, Anais Nin, and Langston Hughes. Listen to the recording below.
Listen to “Six Shorts Poems” with sung by Brent Maher with pianist Garrett John Law.
Six Short Poems
1. Emily Dickinson (1830-1836)
“Hope” is the thing with feathers – That perches in the soul – And sings the tune without the words – And never stops – at all – And sweetest – in the Gale – is heard – And sore must be the storm – That could abash the little Bird That kept so many warm – I’ve heard it in the chillest land – And on the strangest Sea – Yet – never – in Extremity, It asked a crumb – of me.
2. Christina Rosetti (1830-1894)
What are heavy? Sea-sand and sorrow; What are brief? Today and tomorrow; What are frail? Spring blossoms and youth; What are deep? The ocean and truth.
3. William Carlos Williams (1883-1963)
I have eaten the plums that were in the icebox and which you were probably saving for breakfast Forgive me they were delicious so sweet and so cold
4. Alfred Tennyson (1809-1892)
He clasps the crag with crooked hands; Close to the sun in lonely lands, Ring’d with the azure world, he stands. The wrinkled sea beneath him crawls; He watches from his mountain walls, And like a thunderbolt he falls.
5. Anais Nin (1903-1977)
And then the day came, when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to Blossom.
6. Langston Hughes (1902-1967)
Sometimes a crumb falls From the tables of joy, Sometimes a bone Is flung. To some people Love is given, To others Only heaven.