“The musk-rose, and the well-attired woodbine, / With cowslips wan that hang the pensive head”

For Poetry Monday, another modern sonnet, this from 1928:


I Am In Need of Music, Elizabeth Bishop

I am in need of music that would flow
Over my fretful, feeling fingertips,
Over my bitter-tainted, trembling lips,
With melody, deep, clear, and liquid-slow.
Oh, for the healing swaying, old and low,
Of some song sung to rest the tired dead,
A song to fall like water on my head,
And over quivering limbs, dream flushed to glow!

There is a magic made by melody:
A spell of rest, and quiet breath, and cool
Heart, that sinks through fading colors deep
To the subaqueous stillness of the sea,
And floats forever in a moon-green pool,
Held in the arms of rhythm and of sleep.


As you might expect given the subject, multiple composers have set this to music.

---L.

Subject quote from Lycidas, John Milton.