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Experiment 4

Villanelle

page 19

Villanelle

Are you afraid of shadows against the sky ?
Lovers must trace each tortuous step today,
Tread softly, softly, lest the morning die.

Close in the night I hear her bird's voice cry
And my heart's blind gospel drives her far away:
Are you afraid of shadows against the sky ?

The child I once knew becomes the girl that my
Spring yearns for. She sings a fresh summer's lay,
Tread softly, softly, lest the morning die.

The pilloried hours of love will soon pass by,
The ravaged leaves will again float in the bay:
Are you afraid of shadows against the sky ?

Here is the world, the world's veins run dry,
Ever the bright blood runs from red to grey,
Tread softly, softly, lest the morning die.

O must I listen to lips always moved to lie,
Heed the deceitful one that will not stay ?
Are you afraid of shadows against the sky ?
Tread softly, softly, lest the morning die.