Alabaster Wool (Snowfall)

Ernst Bacon's setting of Emily Dickinson's "It sifts from leaden sieves" has two titles: "Alabaster Wool" and "Snowfall." The song can be found in Songs from Emily Dickinson: Nature Time and Space - Volume 1, published by Classical Vocal Reprints.

Date: 1944Composer: Ernst BaconText: Emily Dickinson

Print vitals & song text

Text

Alabaster Wool (Snowfall)
by Emily Dickinson

It sifts from leaden sieves,
It powders all the wood,
It fills with alabaster wool
The wrinkles of the road.

It makes an even face
Of mountain and of plain,—
Unbroken forehead from the east
Unto the east again.

It reaches to the fence,
It wraps it, rail by rail,
Till it is lost in fleeces;
It flings a crystal veil

On stump and stack and stem,—
The summer’s empty room,
Acres of seams where harvests were
Recordless, but for them.

It ruffles wrists of posts,
As ankles of a queen,—
Then stills its artisans like ghosts,
Denying they have been.

Sheet Music

Songs from Emily Dickinson: Nature, time and space Vol. 1

Composer(s): Ernst Bacon

Song(s): Is There Such a Thing as Day?
Alabaster Wool (Snowfall)Simple days
A spider
On this wondrous sea
A drop fell on the apple tree

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