Elizabeth Bishop (Элизабет Бишоп)

Sonnet (I am in need of music that would flow)

I am in need of music that would flow
Over my fretful, feeling finger-tips,
Over my bitter-tainted, trembling lips,
With melody, deep, clear, and liquid-slow.
Oh, for the healing swaying, old and low,
Of some song sung to rest the tired dead,
A song to fall like water on my head,
And over quivering limbs, dream flushed to glow!

There is a magic made by melody:
A spell of rest, and quiet breath, and cool
Heart, that sinks through fading colors deep
To the subaqueous stillness of the sea,
And floats forever in a moon-green pool,
Held in the arms of rhythm and of sleep.

Elizabeth Bishop’s other poems:

  1. At the Fishhouses
  2. Squatter’s Children
  3. The Man-Moth
  4. The Armadillo
  5. Strayed Crab




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