The Thing With Feathers (2000) Performance: Carol Lundergan, mezzo-soprano; Ed Lundergan, tenor; James Fitzwilliam, piano Notes: Set of four songs for mezzo soprano, tenor and piano. Poems by Emily Dickinson (used with permission).
"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.
The soul selects her own society Then shuts the door On her divine majority Obtrude no more. Unmoved She notes the chariot’s pausing At her low gate Unmoved An emperor is kneeling Upon her mat. I’ve known her from an ample nation Choose one Then close the valves of her attention Like stone.
A word is dead When it is said Some say. I say it just begins to live that day.
I’m nobody! Who are You? Are You Nobody, too? Then there’s a pair of us - Don’t tell! They’d banish us, you know!
How dreary to be somebody! How public, like a frog To tell your name the livelong day To an admiring bog!
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