To a Katy-did (Freneau, set by R. Braine ) (The Lied and Art Song Texts Page: Texts and Translations to Lieder, mélodies, canzoni, and other classical vocal music)


  In a branch of willow hid
Sings the evening Caty-did:
From the lofty-locust bough
Feeding on a drop of dew,
In her suit of green arrayed
Hear her singing in the shade -- 
  Caty-did, Caty-did, Caty-did!
 
  While upon a leaf you tread,
Or repose your little head
On your sheet of shadows laid,
All the day you nothing said:
Half the night your cheery tongue
Revelled out its little song, -- 
  Nothing else but Caty-did.
 
  From your lodging on the leaf 
Did you utter joy or grief?
Did you only mean to say,
I have had my summer's day,
And am passing, soon, away
To the grave of Caty-did:
  Poor, unhappy Caty-did!
 
  But you would have uttered more
Had you known of nature's power;
From the world when you retreat,
And a leaf's your winding sheet,
Long before your spirit fled,
Who can tell but nature said, -- 
Live again, my Caty-did!
  Live, and chatter Caty-did.
 
  Tell me, what did Caty do?
Did she mean to trouble you?
Why was Caty not forbid
To trouble little Caty-did?
Wrong, indeed, at you to fling,
Hurting no one while you sing, -- 
  Caty-did! Caty-did! Caty-did!
 
  Why continue to complain?
Caty tells me she again
Will not give you plague or pain;
Caty says you may be hid,
Caty will not go to bed
While you sing us Caty-did, -- 
  Caty-did! Caty-did! Caty-did!
 
  But, while singing, you forgot
To tell us what did Caty not:
Caty did not think of cold,
Flocks retiring to the fold,
Winter with his wrinkles old;
Winter, that yourself foretold
  When you gave us Caty-did.
 
  Stay serenely on your nest;
Caty now will do her best,
All she can, to make you blest;
But you want no human aid, -- 
Nature, when she formed you, said,
  "Independent you are made,
My dear little Caty-did:
Soon yourself must disappear
With the verdure of the year,"
And to go, we know not where,
  With your song of Caty-did.

Authorship

Philip Morin Freneau (1752-1832)

The Poems of Philip Freneau

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

Robert Braine (1896-1940)

Date added to the website: 2008-09-23.

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