Dirge

Listen to:

Dirge (:43)

by Edna St. Vincent Millay 

performed by Bob Gonzalez, rhapsode

     Boys and girls that held her dear,

       Do your weeping now;

     All you loved of her lies here.

     Brought to earth the arrogant brow,

       And the withering tongue

     Chastened; do your weeping now.

     Sing whatever songs are sung,

       Wind whatever wreath,

     For a playmate perished young,

     For a spirit spent in death.

     Boys and girls that held her dear,

     All you loved of her lies here.

Love (III)

Listen to:

Love (III) (1:15)

by George Herbert 

performed by Bob Gonzalez, rhapsode

Love bade me welcome. Yet my soul drew back

                              Guilty of dust and sin.

But quick-eyed Love, observing me grow slack

                             From my first entrance in,

Drew nearer to me, sweetly questioning,

                             If I lacked any thing.

A guest, I answered, worthy to be here:

                             Love said, You shall be he.

I the unkind, ungrateful? Ah my dear,

                             I cannot look on thee.

Love took my hand, and smiling did reply,

                             Who made the eyes but I?

Truth Lord, but I have marred them: let my shame

                             Go where it doth deserve.

And know you not, says Love, who bore the blame?

                             My dear, then I will serve.

You must sit down, says Love, and taste my meat:

                             So I did sit and eat.

Love (II)

Listen to:

Love (II) (1:10)

by George Herbert 

performed by Bob Gonzalez, rhapsode

Immortal Heat, O let Thy greater flame

      Attract the lesser to it; let those fires

      Which shall consume the world first make it tame,

And kindle in our hearts such true desires

As may consume our lusts, and make Thee way:

      Then shall our hearts pant Thee, then shall our brain

      All her invention on Thine altar lay,

And there in hymns send back Thy fire again.

Our eyes shall see Thee, which before saw dust,

      Dust blown by wit, till that they both were blind:

      Thou shalt recover all Thy goods in kind,

Who wert disseized by usurping lust:

All knees shall bow to Thee; all wits shall rise,

And praise Him Who did make and mend our eyes.

Come, Said the World

Listen to:

Come, Said the World (1:03)

by Wallace Stevens 

performed by Bob Gonzalez, rhapsode

Come, said the world, thy youth is not all play,

Upon these hills vast palaces must rise,

And over this green plain that calmly lies

In peace, a mighty city must have sway.

These weak and murmuring reeds cannot gainsay

The building of my wharves; this flood that flies

Unfathomed clear must bear my merchandise,

And sweep my burdens on their seaward way.

No, cried my heart, this thing I cannot do,

This is my home, this plain and water clear

Are my companions faultless as the sky—

I cannot, will not give them up to you.

And if you come upon them I shall fear,

And if you steal them from me I shall die.

Let Your Soul Stand Cool

Listen to:

Let Your Soul Stand Cool (1:06)

by Walt Whitman

performed by Bob Gonzalez, rhapsode

from Song of Myself by Walt Whitman

   

I have said that the soul is not more than the body,

And I have said that the body is not more than the soul,

And nothing, not God, is greater to one than one's self is,

And whoever walks a furlong without sympathy walks to his own

    funeral drest in his shroud,

And I or you pocketless of a dime may purchase the pick of the earth,

And to glance with an eye or show a bean in its pod confounds the

    learning of all times,

And there is no trade or employment but the young man following it

    may become a hero,

And there is no object so soft but it makes a hub for the wheel'd universe,

And I say to any man or woman, Let your soul stand cool and composed

    before a million universes.

Sonnet

Listen to:

Sonnet (1:21)

by Horace Spencer Fiske

performed by Bob Gonzalez, rhapsode

Silver Birches

Listen to:

Silver Birches (:57)

by Bert Leston Taylor

performed by Bob Gonzalez, rhapsode

The Argument of his Book

Listen to:

The Argument of his Book (1:11)

by Robert Herrick

performed by Bob Gonzalez, rhapsode

I sing of brooks, of blossoms, birds, and bowers,
Of April, May, of June, and July flowers.
I sing of May-poles, hock-carts, wassails, wakes,
Of bridegrooms, brides, and of their bridal-cakes.
I write of youth, of love, and have access
By these to sing of cleanly wantonness.
I sing of dews, of rains, and piece by piece
Of balm, of oil, of spice, and ambergris.
I sing of Time's trans-shifting; and I write
How roses first came red, and lilies white.
I write of groves, of twilights, and I sing
The court of Mab, and of the fairy king.
I write of Hell; I sing (and ever shall)
Of Heaven, and hope to have it after all.

Requiem

Photo by Harry Finder

Listen to: 

Requiem (:23)

by Robert Louis Stevenson

performed by Bob Gonzalez, rhapsode

Under the wide and starry sky

  Dig the grave and let me lie: 

Glad did I live and gladly die, 

  And I laid me down with a will.        

 

This be the verse you 'grave for me:            

  Here he lies where he long'd to be;  

Home is the sailor, home from the sea,         

  And the hunter home from the hill.   

The World is Too Much With Us

Listen to:

The World is Too Much With Us (:48)

by William Wordsworth

performed by Bob Gonzalez, rhapsode

          The world is too much with us; late and soon,

          Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers:

          Little we see in Nature that is ours;

          We have given our hearts away, a sordid boon!

          The Sea that bares her bosom to the moon;

          The winds that will be howling at all hours,

          And are up-gathered now like sleeping flowers;

          For this, for everything, we are out of tune;

          It moves us not.--Great God! I'd rather be

          A Pagan suckled in a creed outworn;                        

          So might I, standing on this pleasant lea,

          Have glimpses that would make me less forlorn;

          Have sight of Proteus rising from the sea;

          Or hear old Triton blow his wreathed horn.

The Windhover

Listen to:

The Windhover (1:08)

by Gerard Manley Hopkins

performed by Bob Gonzalez, rhapsode

The Windhover:

To Christ our Lord

I CAUGHT this morning morning's minion, king-

     dom of daylight's dauphin, dapple-dawn-drawn Fal-

          con, in his riding

Of the rolling level underneath him steady air, and

     striding

High there, how he rung upon the rein of a wimpling wing

In his ecstacy! then off, off forth on swing,

     As a skate's heel sweeps smooth on a bow-bend:

          the hurl and gliding

     Rebuffed the big wind. My heart in hiding

Stirred for a bird,--the achieve of, the mastery of the

          thing!

Brute beauty and valour and act, oh, air, pride, plume, here

    Buckle! AND the fire that breaks from thee then, a

          billion

Times told lovelier, more dangerous, O my chevalier!

     No wonder of it: shéer plód makes plough down

          sillion

Shine, and blue-bleak embers, ah my dear,

   Fall, gall themselves, and gash gold-vermillion.