has there ever been a Spring poetry thread? I did a search and didn't find anything. I'm looking for a public domain text with a Spring theme to use in a composition for an elementary chorus. any suggestions?

Gilbert and Sullivan:The flowers that bloom in the spring, tra la....
http://math.boisestate.edu/gas/mikado/html/bloom_in_spring.html

From Disney's "Golden Afternoon" (Easily googled, not that google is in the dictionary or anythin'...)

Littlebread-and-butterflies kiss the tulips
And the sun is like a toy balloon
There are get up in the morning glories
In the golden afternoon

There are dizzy daffodils on the hillside
Strings of violets are all in tune
Tiger lilies love the dandy lions
In the golden afternoon

There are dog and caterpillars and a copper centipede
Where the lazy daisies love the very peaceful life
They lead...

You can learn a lot of things from the flowers
For especially in the month of June
There's a wealth of happiness and romance
All in the golden afternoon

You can learn a lot of things from the flowers
For especially in the month of June
There's a wealth of happiness and romance
All in the golden afternoon


It's really pretty.

It sounds like, however, you're looking for poetry you yourself (or somebody else) could set to music. True?

It sounds like, however, you're looking for poetry you yourself (or somebody else) could set to music. True?

yes, I will compose the piece, and the poem should be in the public domain.

Well, I hope you'll get some great suggestions here. I myself can't look right now because I'm off to prepare tomorrow's services, but, if you don't get anything you really like, I'll check in with a suggestion or two by tomorrow evening.

Frost's "Pasture Spring" or "The Pasture" (can't remember its exact title) has been set to music. An art song. Do you know it? But it still has lots of musical potential for other interpretations. I love that poem--love it, love it, love it!--because of the last line which feels so much like an invitation to life:

"You come, too."

And I don't mean to imply anything louche at all. Instead, I like the open-armed feeling of that line once you get to it.

However, I know elementary kids, and the poem may be too precious for today's tastes. Just as the butterfly song above is too precious for today's tastes. Fifth grade...that's where they kindof go nuts.

What age is this elementary chorus, by the way?

Sumer is i-cumen in oughta be in the public domain by now, or, if it doesn't have to be in English there's a bunch of stuff in the Carmina Burana.

WW: an old college friend of mine is the director for the Southern Nevada Musical Arts Society Children's Chorus from Las Vegas and he's asked me to compose a piece for their inaugural concert. it's 60-80 4th through 6th graders. should be fun!

unfortunately, I don't think that Robert Frost's poems are in the public domain.

Fald: great thought!

I am eager to hear more ideas, but I think I may have found a keeper! (a search of Bartleby's verse section found nearly 1,000 references to Spring!)

Carl Sandburg (1878–1967). Smoke and Steel. 1922.

V. Mist Forms
12. The Wind Sings Welcome in Early Spring

(For Paula)


THE GRIP of the ice is gone now.
The silvers chase purple.
The purples tag silver.
They let out their runners
Here where summer says to the lilies:
“Wish and be wistful,
Circle this wind-hunted, wind-sung water.”

Come along always, come along now.
You for me, kiss me, pull me by the ear.
Push me along with the wind push.
Sing like the whinnying wind.
Sing like the hustling obstreperous wind.

Have you ever seen deeper purple …
this in my wild wind fingers?
Could you have more fun with a pony or a goat?
Have you seen such flicking heels before,
Silver jig heels on the purple sky rim?
Come along always, come along now.

I love all the playful words... this should be fun!

Lovely!

It reads well aloud--great play of sound there. It should work very well musically. Especially:

"Have you ever seen deeper purple …
this in my wild wind fingers?
Could you have more fun with a pony or a goat?
Have you seen such flicking heels before,
Silver jig heels on the purple sky rim?
Come along always, come along now.?"

Thanks for posting it here.

WW

Don't know how it would set to music or relate to elementary school children's ken, but:

Spring Pools

by Robert Frost

These Pools that, though in forests, still reflect
The total sky almost without defect,
And like the flowers beside them, chill and shiver,
Will like the flowers beside them soon be gone,
And yet not out by any brook or river,
But up by roots to bring dark foliage on.

These trees that have it in their pent-up buds
To darken nature and be summer woods--
Let them think twice before they use their powers
To blot out and drink up and sweep away
These flowery waters and these watery flowers
From snow that melted only yesterday.

©1963 by Robert Frost

(etaoin, a quick call to the Frost estate, if you're interested in using any of his material, is probably all that is required...they should be delighted to grant permission for his work to be used for such a project, pro bono...you just need their written permission, that's all)

Here ya go, etoain...musical and suitable, and definitely in the public domain!

SPRING

by William Blake


Sound the flute!
Now it's mute!
Birds delight,
Day and night,
Nightingale,
In the dale,
Lark in sky, -
Merrily,
Merrily, merrily to welcome in the year.

Little boy,
Full of joy;
Little girl,
Sweet and small;
Cock does crow,
So do you;
Merry voice,
Infant noise;
Merrily, merrily to welcome in the year.

Little lamb,
Here I am;
Come and lick
My white neck;
Let me pull
Your soft wool;
Let me kiss
Your soft face;
Merrily, merrily we welcome in the year.