I'll tell you how the sun rose

I'll tell you how the sun rose, -
A ribbon at a time.
The steeples swam in amethyst,
The news like squirrels ran.

The hills untied their bonnets,
The bobolinks begun.
Then I said softly to myself,
"That must have been the sun!"

But how he set, I know not.
There seemed a purple stile
Which little yellow boys and girls
Were climbing all the while

Till when they reached the other side,
A dominic in gray
Put gently up the evening bars,
And led the flock away.

by Emily Dickinson (1830-1886) , no title, from Poems of Emily Dickinson, published 1890

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

by Allyson Brown , no title, published 1975 [SA chorus and piano], from Songs from Emily, no. ?
by Arthur Farwell (1872-1952) , "How the sun rose", op. 105 no. 1.
by Eunice L. Kettering , "The sun", published 1955. [chorus: SSA a cappella]
by Fanny Snow Knowlton (1859-1926) , "A day"
by Don McAfee (1935-) , "I'll tell you how the sun rose" [chorus: SATB a cappella]
by Adeline Raymond-Ward , "A day", published 1913.

Added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.

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