Springing Jack (Sitwell, set by W. Walton) (The Lied and Art Song Texts Page: Texts and Translations to Lieder, mélodies, canzoni, and other classical vocal music)


 Green wooden leaves clap fight away,
 Severely practical, as they

 Shelter the children, candy-pale,
 The chestnut-candles flicker, fail......

 The showman's face is cubed clear as
 The shapes reflected in a glass

 Of water - (glog, glut, a ghost's speech
 Fumbling for space from each to each).

 The fusty showman fumbles, must
 Fit in a particle of dust

 The universe, for fear it gain
 Its freedom from my box of brain.

 Yet dust hears seeds that grow to grace
 Behind my crude-striped wooden face.

 As I, a puppet tinsel-pink,
 Leap on my springs, learn how to think,

 Then like the trembling golden stalk
 Of some long-petalled star, I walk

 Through the dark heavens until dew
 Falls on my eyes and sense thrills through.

Input by Dan Eggleston

Authorship

Edith Sitwell (1887-1964)

Facades

Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive)

William Walton (1902-1983)

Façade

Added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.

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