1. the hours descend
the hours rise up putting off stars and it is
dawn
into the street of the sky light walks scattering poems
on earth a candle is
extinguished the city
wakes
with a song upon her
mouth having death in her eyes
and it is dawn
the world goes forth to murder dreams….
i see in the street where strong
men are digging bread
and i see the brutal faces of
people contented hideous cruel hopeless happy
and it is day,
in the mirror
i see a frail
man dreaming
dreams
dreams in the mirror
and it
is dusk on earth
a candle is lighted
and it is dark.
the people are in their houses
the frail man is in his bed
the city
sleeps with death upon her mouth having
a song in her eyes
the hours descend,
putting on stars…
in the street of the sky night walks scattering poems
– E. E. Cummings, 1923
2. Lonely
What lips my lips have kissed, and where, and why,
I have forgotten, and what arms have lain
Under my head till morning; but the rain
Is full of ghosts to-night, that tap and sigh
Upon the glass and listen for reply;
And in my heart there stirs a quiet pain,
For unremembered lads that not again
Will turn to me at midnight with a cry.
Thus in the winter stands the lonely tree,
Nor knows what birds have vanished one by one,
Yet knows its boughs more silent than before:
I cannot say what loves have come and gone;
I only know that summer sang in me
A little while, that in me sings no more.
– Edna St. Vincent Millay, 1922
3. If You Want Me Again
The last scud of day holds back for me,
It flings my likeness after the rest and true as any on the shadow’d wilds,
It coaxes me to the vapor and the dusk.
I depart as air, I shake my white locks at the runaway sun,
I effuse my flesh in eddies, and drift it in lacy jags.
I bequeath myself to the dirt to grow from the grass I love,
If you want me again look for me under your boot-soles.
You will hardly know who I am or what I mean,
But I shall be good health to you nevertheless,
And filter and fibre your blood.
Failing to fetch me at first keep encouraged,
Missing me one place search another,
I stop somewhere waiting for you.
– Walt Whitman, 1855
The texts in Departure all spoke to me about the end of things – a day, the amorous years of one’s life, and life itself. In the first song “the hours descend,” the speaker depicts the passing of a day in the city. Yet even in the portrayal of daybreak, there are sad undertones in the poem. “The city wakes with a song upon her mouth having death in her eyes.” Even here, the speaker imparts the joy of dawn, but is already forecasting the inevitable end to come. The poem goes on to say how “the world goes forth to murder dreams.” Throughout the text we see natural and metropolitan images side by side, and we end up yearning for nature, and scorn the chaos of the city. As day falls onto the residents of this city, the music becomes more agitated and raucous and shows the chaos and frustrations apparent in city life. We only regain tranquility musically when it is dark and “the city sleeps with death upon her mouth having a song in her eyes.” Here we’ve reached the point where we’re ready for the end, with only a memory of the song.
“Lonely” opens with an a cappella section. The singer, musing alone, finds herself in a state where she cannot remember the lovers in her life. This opening section is the singer thinking out loud, as she comes to grips with her faded passions. As she fully understands her thoughts, and is ready to share them with the audience, the piano begins, and helps her illustrate her acceptance of this. It is the saddest piece of the set, as the singer realizes that near the end of her life, she cannot remember the details, the individual days that are painted so vividly in the E. E. Cummings text. She only remembers the feeling of joy that inhabited her for a while, but even that has now gone.
Remorse turns to full acceptance and triumph in “If You Want Me Again.” In this text, the last bit from Whitman’s Leaves of Grass, the speaker asserts ownership and acceptance of a situation over which she has no control. She compares her passing to the currents of wind, and departs wildly and ecstatically. This is never more clearly illustrated than in the running triplet fi gures in the piano as the wind “coaxes me to the vapor and the dusk.” The speaker gives herself over to earth. Through death, she will escape the artificial, chaotic environment that we feel from the city and she will become a part of the earth.
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