Didja know...
that most of Emily Dickinson's poems may be sung to the tune of "The Yellow Rose of Texas?" It's true! Just give it a try. (If you don't know the tune, there is a midi file here.) Some especially fun poems to sing this way are "Because I Could Not Stop for Death" and "I Heard a Fly Buzz When I Died." |
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By the way, this is not a discovery I made on my own. One of my favorite professors, Duke Rank, shared this bit of extemporanea with my Am Lit I class a while back. It's one of those things you wish you'd never known, because once you do, you'll never forget.
NEWS FLASH! (added 14 August 2001)
Apparently, not only is the fact that Emily be sung to "TYRoT" old news, but there are many *other* popular tunes her verse can be set to:
Amazing
Grace
America (medley
-- 1st song is "America")
Auld Lang Syne
Beverly Hillbillies
Theme
Gilligan's Island Theme
Ghost Riders in the Sky
The House of the Rising
Sun
It Came Upon a Midnight
Clear
What Child is This
Yankee Doodle
Go ahead. Try it. You know you want to. (Sigh.)
poem 465
I heard a Fly buzz--when I died-- The Stillness in the Room Was like the Stillness in the Air-- Between the Heaves of Storm--
The Eyes around--had wrung them dry-- And Breaths were gathering firm For that last Onset--when the King Be witnessed--in the Room--
I willed my Keepsakes--Signed away What portion of me be Assignable--and then it was There interposed a Fly--
With Blue--uncertain stumbling Buzz-- Between the light--and me-- And then the Windows failed--and then I could not see to see--
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poem 27
Because I could not stop for Death, We slowly drove, he knew no haste, We passed the school where children
played, We paused before a house that
seemed Since then 'tis centuries; but each |
Note to Andrew: You know, of course, that this knowledge means trouble ahead... (Lucky for you that I have the memory of a lab rat!)
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