Love Song

"Love Song" is the first song of Mostly About Love, a song cycle by Virgil Thomson setting the poetry of Kenneth Koch.

Date: 1959Composer: Virgil ThomsonText: Kenneth KochSong Collection: Mostly About Love

Print vitals & song text

Text

To You (Love Song)
by Kenneth Koch

I love you as a sheriff searches for a walnut
That will solve a murder case unsolved for years
Because the murderer left it in the snow beside a window
Through which he saw her head, connecting with
Her shoulders by a neck, and laid a red
Roof in her heart. For this we live a thousand years;
For this we love, and we live because we love, we are not
Inside a bottle, thank goodness! I love you as a
Kid searches for a goat; I am crazier than shirttails
In the wind, when you’re near, a wind that blows from
The big blue sea, so shiny so deep and so unlike us;
I think I am bicycling across an Africa of green and white fields
Always, to be near you, even in my heart
When I’m awake, which swims, and also I believe that you
Are trustworthy as the sidewalk which leads me to
The place where I again think of you, a new
Harmony of thoughts! I love you as the sunlight leads the prow
Of a ship which sails
From Hartford to Miami, and I love you
Best at dawn, when even before I am awake the sun
Receives me in the questions which you always pose.

Sheet Music

Mostly About Love (High Voice)

Composer(s): Virgil Thomson

Voice Type: High

Buy via Music Sales Classical

Mostly About Love (Low Voice)

Composer(s): Virgil Thomson

Voice Type: Low

Buy via Music Sales Classical

Support us and help us grow

Dear friends, Thank you for helping us build a comprehensive online archive of American song. Your gift is greatly appreciated.