The heart of a woman

The heart of a woman goes forth with the dawn
As a lone bird, soft winging so restlessly on.
Afar o'er life's turrets and vales does it roam.
In the wake of those echoes, the heart calls home.

The heart of a woman falls back with the night
And enters some alien cage in its plight,
And tries to forget it has dreamed of the stars
While it breaks, breaks on the sheltering bars.

by Georgia Douglas Johnson (1880-1966) , "The heart of a woman", from The Book of American Negro Poetry, published 1922

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

by H. Leslie Adams (1932-) , "The heart of a woman", from Nightsongs, no. 3.
by Gary Bachlund , "The heart of a woman", 2007, from Four Songs of a Woman, no. 2.

Date added to the website: 2004-01-10.

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