Going Home from the Party

"Going Home from the Party" sets a poem of Janet Lewis.

Henderson wrote of Lewis:

"Janet Lewis spent four years in the early nineteen twenties immured at Sunmount Sanitarium in Santa Fe, New Mexico recovering from tuberculosis. The patients spent their lives in bed in little screened out-buildings. Across the arroyo was a hacienda where parties frequently occurred. Janet would listen as the guests started to leave."

For visitors interested in obtaining the score to this song, please contact [email protected].

Date: 1990Composer: Alva HendersonText: Janet Lewis

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Text

Going Home from the Party
by Janet Lewis

I heard the far lowing
Of cattle, homeward going;
I heard the wind slowing
In thick-leaved bush;
I heard the quiet growing
Like leaves in the hush.

I heard the laughter fading;
Compliment, gay upbraiding
Into the quiet shading,
Night rising around;
Sunlight and daylight fading
Upon the air like sound.

I heard the deft passing
Of small creatures tracing
Night paths, and erasing
Day paths from the ground,
And silence deep-massing
In low-lying mound.

Audio

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