The Mind
The Singer Chooses the Songs of the Wind
From The Coat Without a Seam (1919)
Henceforth I will sing no songs
But the songs that are fluent, irregular, swift, unguided:
I will turn no tunes but the tunes of the winds and the waters.
I know that the song of the bird is remembered, it changes not;
And I know that the song of the wind is unremembered;
But it stirs the ground of the heart while the song is a-singing,
And it flows from a vaster source than the song of the bird.
So I will sing the song of the wind in the long grass, by the river,
And the song of the wind in the dry and copper-brown oak-leaves,
In the autumnal season, so beautiful and sad,
And the song of the wind in the green cool ranks of the corn
As it stirs very lightly in the summer,
And the song of the wind in the pines, when the shadows are blue on
the snow,
And the song, song, song, of the wind in the flapping flag,
And the winter-night song of the wind in the chimney,
And the swelling, lulling song of the swirling wind of the sea
That is blent with the plunge of the sea.
Cite this poem
MLA
Cone, Helen Gray. “The Singer Chooses the Songs of the Wind.” Poetry Codex, poetrycodex.com/poem/cone/172/.
Chicago
Cone, Helen Gray. “The Singer Chooses the Songs of the Wind.” Poetry Codex. https://poetrycodex.com/poem/cone/172/.
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