The XKCD mouseover today has tipped me off to something wonderful: Because Emily Dickinson's "Death" is in ballad meter, it can be sung to the tune of "Gilligan's Island." What other treasures are out there, waiting for just the right tune to bring them to life?!
Here are, for your singing pleasure, the lyrics. You're welcome.
Death, Emily Dickinson
Because I could not stop for Death,
He kindly stopped for me;
The carriage held but just ourselves
And Immortality.
We slowly drove, he knew no haste,
And I had put away
My labor, and my leisure too,
For his civility.
We passed the school, where children strove
At recess, in the ring;
We passed the fields of gazing grain,
We passed the setting sun.
Or rather, he passed us;
The dews grew quivering and chill,
For only gossamer my gown,
My tippet only tulle.
We paused before a house that seemed
A swelling of the ground;
The roof was scarcely visible,
The cornice but a mound.
Since then 'tis centuries, and yet each
Feels shorter than the day
I first surmised the horses' heads
Were toward eternity.
Sweet Emily also asked:
ReplyDeleteHave you got a Brook in your little heart,
Where bashful flowers blow,
And blushing birds go down to drink,
And shadows tremble so --
And nobody knows, so still it flows,
That any brook is there,
And yet your little draught of life
Is daily drunken there --
Why, look out for the little brook in March,
When the rivers overflow,
And the snows come hurrying from the hills,
And the bridges often go --
And later, in August it may be --
When the meadows parching lie,
Beware, lest this little brook of life,
Some burning noon go dry!