what about this amazing piece by e.e. cummings:
i thank You God for most this amazing
day:for the leaping greenly spirits of trees
and a blue true dream of sky;and for everything
which is natural which is infinite which is yes
(i who have died am alive again today,
and this is the sun's birthday;this is the birth
day of life and of love and wings:and of the gay
great happening illimitably earth)
how should tasting touching hearing seeing
breathing any--lifted from the no
of allnothing--human merely being
doubt unimaginable You?
(now the ears of my ears awake and
now the eyes of my eyes are opened)
11 comments:
Have you heard Eric Whitacre's choral setting of this?
Hey... I remember this! I can't remember who set the choral arrangement that we used back in 82. Was it Whitacre?
as far as i knew, e.e. cummings never capitalized anything. of course, my knowledge of his poetry is from a public high school english lit course. interesting where he did use the capitals. do you know if his was the Triune God?
Not according to at least one commentator:
"His basic religious feelings were in tune with his Unitarian upbringing. His concept of God was that of a comprehensive Oneness together with a sense of the presence of this Oneness in nature. In Xaipe he expressed this belief most clearly in a sonnet that combined both prayer and an awareness of Divinity in the natural world:
I thank You God for most this amazing day..."
http://www.harvardsquarelibrary.org/unitarians/cummings.html
Hey, John, wasn't it by Lloyd Pfautsch?
Karl,
Not familiar with that one!
Here are two performances of Whitacre's arrangement of the poem:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mYSCuphIEc0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bX6R2ZO-EOQ&feature=related
Karl H.
We have a very talented composer / pianist friend of the congregation who wrote a lovely setting for this poem. I had the honor of singing it in church Easter 2007, with an encore for my Mother's 70th birthday.
Truly a universally lovely poem. Even Herb Hoefer and the Muslims could recite/sing it. :-)
Ah, yes, William. It was Lloyd Pfautsch
Pastor, thanks for sharing this! I love e. e. cummings but did not know this poem. I'm going to use it with my homeschool literature students!
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