Song Cycle by Lukas Foss (1922-)

1.

Authorship

by Wallace Stevens (1879-1955) , from Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird, published 1917

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Among twenty snowy mountains,
The only moving thing
Was the eye of the blackbird

2.

Authorship

by Wallace Stevens (1879-1955) , from Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird, published 1917

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 I was of three minds.
 Like a tree
 In which there are three blackbirds.

3.

Authorship

by Wallace Stevens (1879-1955) , from Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird, published 1917

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 The blackbird whirled in the autumn winds.
 It was a small part of the pantomime.

4.

Authorship

by Wallace Stevens (1879-1955) , from Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird, published 1917

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 A man and a woman
 Are one.
 A man and a woman and a blackbird
 Are one.

5.

Authorship

by Wallace Stevens (1879-1955) , from Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird, published 1917

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 I do not know which to prefer,
 The beauty of inflections
 Or the beauty of innuendoes,
 The blackbird whistling
 Or just after.

6.

Authorship

by Wallace Stevens (1879-1955) , from Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird, published 1917

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Icicles filled the long window
With barbaric glass.
The shadow of the blackbird
Crossed it, to and fro.
The mood
Traced in the shadow
An indecipherable cause.

7.

Authorship

by Wallace Stevens (1879-1955) , from Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird, published 1917

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 O thin men of Haddam,
 Why do you imagine golden birds?
 Do you not see how the blackbird
 Walks around the feet
 Of the women about you?

8.

Authorship

by Wallace Stevens (1879-1955) , from Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird, published 1917

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 I know noble accents
 And lucid, inescapable rhythms;
 But I know, too,
 That the blackbird is involved
 In what I know.

9.

Authorship

by Wallace Stevens (1879-1955) , from Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird, published 1917

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When the blackbird flew out of sight
It marked the edge
Of one of many circles.

10.

Authorship

by Wallace Stevens (1879-1955) , from Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird, published 1917

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 At the sight of blackbirds
 Flying in the green light,
 Even the bawds of euphony
 Would cry out sharply.

11.

Authorship

by Wallace Stevens (1879-1955) , from Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird, published 1917

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 He rode over Connecticut
 In a glass coach.
 Once, a fear pierced him,
 In that he mistook
 The shadow of his equipage
 For Blackbirds.

12.

Authorship

by Wallace Stevens (1879-1955) , from Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird, published 1917

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 The river is moving.
 The blackbirds must be flying.

13.

Authorship

by Wallace Stevens (1879-1955) , from Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird, published 1917

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 It was evening all afternoon.
 It was snowing
 And it was going to snow.
 The blackbirds sat
 In the cedar-limbs.

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Sheet music:

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Books:

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