Morning Song Love set you going like a fat gold watch. The midwife slapped your footsoles, and your bald cry Took its place among the elements
L
N
I'm no more your mother Than the wind that distills a miror to reflect its own slow Effacement at the wind's hand.
Y
Our voices echo, magnifying your arrival. New statue. In a drafty museum, your nakedness Shadows our safety. We stand round blankly as walls.
O
All night your moth-breath Flickers among the flat pink roses. I wake to listen: A far sea moves in my ear.
One cry, and I stumble from bed, cow-heavy and floral In my Victorian nightgown. Your mouth opens clean as a cat's. The window square
L
Whitens and swallows its dull stars. And now you try Your handful of notes; The clear vowels rise like balloons.
A
q = c. 84
P
E
ALTO
TENOR
BASS
R
SOPRANO
pp
p energico
U
S
Sylvia Plath
Tubular Bells
19 February 1961
Love set you go - ing,
p
set you
go - ing,
Love
set you
Love
p energico
Love
p energico
Love
Shawn Kirchner
set you go - ing,
go - ing like a fat
set you
gold
go - ing like a fat
gold
go - ing like a fat
gold
mp
...like a fat
Copyright © 2013 by Shawn Kirchner Publishing, with permission of Faber and Faber Ltd. and the Estate of Sylvia Plath. Licensed copies available through www.ShawnKirchner.com
gold