Come Ready and See Me

This song is perhaps Richard Hundley's best known work. It was composed in January 1971, and is dedicated to Jeffrey L. Cerza, a friend of the composer who died at an early age. It is included in Four Songs, (1989), in the key of Eb major, and Eight Songs, (1981), in the higher key, Gb major. Betty Allen premiered this song on her recitals throughout the United States in 1973. It has been recorded by mezzo-soprano, Frederica von Stade and tenor, Paul Sperry.

--Esther Jane Hardenbergh

Print vitals & song text

Text

Come Ready and See me
by James Purdy

Come ready and see me,
No matter how late
Come before the years run out,
I’m waiting with a candle
No wind will blow out,
But you must haste
By foot or by sky
For no one can wait forever
Under the bluest sky
I can’t wait forever
For the years are running out.

From Mr. Evening, And Nine Poems by James Purdy.
(Black Sparrow Press)
Copyright 1968 by James Purdy.

Recordings

Up Toward the Sky

(Amy Marcy Beach, William Ernest Henley, Richard Hundley, Marianne Moore, James Purdy, Edward Rowland Sill, Gertrude Stein, Sara Teasdale and Virgil Thomson)

2017

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