Three Poems
Patrick Riley
About this work:
I have modified the lanuage, location and time frame of these three public domain works and added a music setting that, more or less, reflects my own experiencs and emotions regarding the poems.
Version: MIDI
Year composed: 2016
Duration: 00:07:38
Ensemble type: Electronic Instruments and Sound Sources
Instrumentation:
Instrumentation notes: "At the Window" by D.H. Lawerence.
The pine-trees bend to listen to the autumn wind as it mutters something which sets the black poplars ashake with hysterical laughter; while slowly the house of day is closing its eastern shutters.
Further down the valley the clustered tombstones recede,
winding about their dimness the mist's grey garments, after the street lamps in the darkness have suddenly started to bleed.
The leaves fly over the window and utter a word as they pass, to the face that leans from the darkness, intent, with two dark-filled eyes that watch ever earnestly from behind the window glass.
"To The River Itchen" by William Lisle Bowles.
Old Castleman river! When I saw your banks again,
your crumbling edge, and silver breast, on which the same daylight tints still seem to rest, why does my heart feel a shivering sense of pain!
Is it, that many a summer's day has past, since, in life's morning, I played at your side!
Is it, that often since then my heart has sighed, as youth, and hope's delusive dreams, flew fast!
Is it, that those who gathered on your shore, companions of my youth, now meet no more!
Whatever the cause, upon your banks I bend, sorrowing; yet feel some comfort in my heart, as if meeting some long-lost friend, from whom, in happier times, we wept to part.
"Stopping By Woods On A Snowy Evening" by Robert Frost.
Whose woods these are I think I know.
His house is in the village, though;
He will not see me stopping here
to watch his woods fill up with snow.
My little horse must think it queer
to stop without a farmhouse near
between the woods and frozen lake
the darkest evening of the year.
He gives his harness bells a shake
to ask if there is some mistake.
The only other sound's the sweep
of easy wind and downy flake.
The woods are lovely, dark and deep,
but I have promises to keep,
and miles to go before I sleep,
and miles to go before I sleep.