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About
Although Bacon’s choice of poetry for his song settings is vast, he is recognized for his settings of American poets, including Walt Whitman and Emily Dickinson. Bacon confirmed his preference for setting texts by the latter poet in his book Words on Music (Syracuse University Press, 1960), when he observed that in “America we have a wealth of lyric poetry calling for song, particularly the contributions of the women, beginning with Emily Dickinson…”
Performers and scholars have ranked Bacon’s Dickinson settings among the best in the repertoire and have considered him to be one of Dickinson’s best interpreters. Few of Bacon’s songs have been published separately. Rather, most of his songs have been issued in collections, and quite often a song will appear in more than one collection, usually in a revised version. One such collection is Bacon’s Songs from Emily Dickinson, which was self-published by the composer.
–Library of Congress
Text
Wild Nights — Wild Nights! (poem 249)
by Emily Dickinson
Wild Nights — Wild Nights!
Were I with thee
Wild Nights should be
Our luxury!
Futile — the Winds —
To a Heart in port —
Done with the Compass —
Done with the Chart!
Rowing in Eden —
Ah, the Sea!
Might I but moor — Tonight —
In Thee!
Related Information
Sheet Music
Songs from Emily Dickinson
Composer(s): Ernst Bacon
Song(s): As If the Sea Should Part
Let down the bars
O friend
The grass so little has to do
A threadless way
The postponeless Creature
I'm Nobody
My river runs to thee
How still the bells
The sun went down
The grass so little has to do
Savior
She went as quiet as the dew
Wild nights