What shall I do — it whimpers so —

"What shall I do — it whimpers so —" is the second song in Leo Smit's song cycle The Marigold Heart. The Marigold Heart is the third of Smit's six song cycles setting the poetry of Emily Dickinson.

For more information about Leo Smit's Emily Dickinson song cycles, please visit the pages for The Ecstatic Pilgrimage and Leo Smit.

For inquiries about Leo Smit and to obtain sheet music, please contact Nils Vigeland at [email protected].

Date: 1990Composer: Leo SmitText: Emily DickinsonSong Collection: The Marigold Heart

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What shall I do — it whimpers so — (poem 186)
by Emily Dickinson

What shall I do — it whimpers so —
This little Hound within the Heart
All day and night with bark and start —
And yet, it will not go —
Would you untie it, were you me —
Would it stop whining — if to Thee —
I sent it — even now?

It should not tease you —
By your chair — or, on the mat —
Or if it dare — to climb your dizzy knee —
Or — sometimes at your side to run —
When you were willing —
Shall it come?
Tell Carlo —
He’ll tell me!

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