The Grass So Little Has To Do (op. 112, no. 2)

"The Grass So Little Has To Do," Op. 112, no. 2 is currently published in the second volume of Boosey & Hawkes' two-volume Thirty-Four Songs on Poems of Emily Dickinson by Arthur Farwell.

This song has been recorded by tenor and American song scholar Paul Sperry on his album Paul Sperry Sings Romantic American Songs.

Date: 1949Composer: Arthur FarwellText: Emily Dickinson

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Text

The Grass so little has to do — (poem 333)
by Emily Dickinson

The Grass so little has to do —
A Sphere of simple Green —
With only Butterflies to brood
And Bees to entertain —

And stir all day to pretty Tunes
The Breezes fetch along —
And hold the Sunshine in its lap
And bow to everything —

And thread the Dews, all night, like Pearls —
And make itself so fine
A Duchess were too common
For such a noticing —

And even when it dies — to pass
In Odors so divine —
Like Lowly spices, gone to sleep —
Or amulets of pine —

And then, to dwell in Sovereign Barns —
And dream the Days away,
The Grass so little has to do
I wish I were a Hay —

Recordings

Paul Sperry Sings Romantic American Song

(Paul Bowles, Theodore Chanler, Arthur Farwell, Richard Hundley and Virgil Thomson)

1995

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