There Will Come Soft Rains
is Beautiful William’s first album.
It’s a project that could not have happened without Sara Teasdale’s poetry, written about a hundred years ago. We were taken with her beautiful works and got down to setting our own original music to her words. Her poems were written long ago but still have a sense of immediacy and congruence with our times.
Lyrics / Poems written by Sara Teasdale, who lived 1884-1933.
1. Debtor, 2:47
So long as my spirit still
Is glad of breath
And lifts its plumes of pride
In the dark face of death;
While I am curious still
Of love and fame,
Keeping my heart too high
For the years to tame,
How can I quarrel with fate
Since I can see
I am a debtor to life,
Not life to me?
Appears in Flame and Shadow, by Sara Teasdale (1920).
Music written by Meredith Wilder.
Meredith Wilder, vocals, guitars, nord electro 3
Sage Harrington, vocals, bass, nord electro 3, Fiddle, whistle
2. The Broken Field, 2:02
My soul is a dark ploughed field
In the cold rain;
My soul is a broken field
Ploughed by pain.
Where grass and bending flowers
Were growing,
The field lies broken now
For another sowing.
Great Sower, when you tread
My field again,
Scatter the furrows there
With better grain.
Appears in Flame and Shadow, by Sara Teasdale (1920).
Music written by Meredith Wilder.
Meredith Wilder, vocals, guitars
Sage Harrington, vocals, bass
3. My Heart Is Heavy, 4:30
My heart is heavy with many a song
Like ripe fruit bearing down the tree,
But I can never give you one –
My songs do not belong to me.
Yet in the evening, in the dusk
When moths go to and fro,
In the gray hour if the fruit has fallen,
Take it, no one will know.
Appears in Flame and Shadow, by Sara Teasdale (1920).
Music written by Sage Harrington.
Sage Harrington, vocals, 1920s martin soprano ukulele, nord electro 3, bass
Meredith Wilder, vocals
4. Lost Things, 3:04
Oh, I could let the world go by,
Its loud new wonders and its wars,
But how will I give up the sky
When winter dusk is set with stars?
And I could let the cities go,
Their changing customs and their creeds,—
But oh, the summer rains that blow
In silver on the jewel-weeds!
Appears in Flame and Shadow, by Sara Teasdale (1920).
Music written by Sage Harrington.
Sage Harrington, vocals, guitars, bass
Meredith Wilder, vocals
5. Desert Pools, 3:35
I love too much; I am a river
Surging with spring that seeks the sea,
I am too generous a giver,
Love will not stoop to drink of me.
His feet will turn to desert places
Shadowless, reft of rain and dew,
Where stars stare down with sharpened faces
From heavens pitilessly blue.
And there at midnight sick with faring,
He will stoop down in his desire
To slake the thirst grown past all bearing
In stagnant water keen as fire.
Appears in Rivers to the Sea, by Sara Teasdale (1915).
Music written by Sage Harrington, Meredith Wilder, Christy Cook, Stephanie Graner and Peri Pakroo.
Meredith Wilder, vocals, guitar, nord electro 3
Sage Harrington, vocals, ukulele
6. Nightfall, 4:22
We will never walk again
As we used to walk at night,
Watching our shadows lengthen
Under the gold street-light
When the snow was new and white.
We will never walk again
Slowly, we two,
In spring when the park is sweet
With midnight and with dew,
And the passers-by are few.
I sit and think of it all,
And the blue June twilight dies,—
Down in the clanging square
A street-piano cries
And stars come out in the skies.
Appears in Flame and Shadow, by Sara Teasdale (1920).
Music written by Sage Harrington.
Sage Harrington, vocals, 1920s martin soprano ukulele
Meredith Wilder, vocals, nord electro 3
7. The Mystery, 2:55
Your eyes drink of me,
Love makes them shine,
Your eyes that lean
So close to mine.
We have long been lovers,
We know the range
Of each other’s moods
And how they change;
But when we look
At each other so
Then we feel
How little we know;
The spirit eludes us,
Timid and free —
Can I ever know you
Or you know me?
Appears in Flame and Shadow, by Sara Teasdale (1920).
Music written by Meredith Wilder.
Meredith Wilder, vocals, guitars
Sage Harrington, vocals, bass
8. I Know the Stars, 2:55
I know the stars by their names,
Aldebaran, Altair,
And I know the path they take
Up heaven’s broad blue stair.
I know the secrets of men
By the look of their eyes,
Their gray thoughts, their strange thoughts
Have made me sad and wise.
But your eyes are dark to me
Though they seem to call and call —
I cannot tell if you love me
Or do not love me at all.
I know many things,
But the years come and go,
I shall die not knowing
The thing I long to know.
Appears in Flame and Shadow, by Sara Teasdale (1920).
Music written by Sage Harrington.
Sage Harrington, vocals, nord electro 3, bass
Meredith Wilder, vocals, guitars
9. The Flight, 2:49
Look back with longing eyes and know that I will follow,
Lift me up in your love as a light wind lifts a swallow,
Let our flight be far in sun or windy rain —
But what if I heard my first love calling me again?
Hold me on your heart as the brave sea holds the foam,
Take me far away to the hills that hide your home;
Peace shall thatch the roof and love shall latch the door —
But what if I heard my first love calling me once more?
Appears in Rivers to the Sea, by Sara Teasdale (1915).
Music written by Sage Harrington.
Sage Harrington, vocals, guitar, nord electro 3, bass
Meredith Wilder, vocals, lead guitar
10. The Net, 3:50
I made you many and many a song,
Yet never one told all you are —
It was as though a net of words
Were flung to catch a star;
It was as though I curved my hand
And dipped sea-water eagerly,
Only to find it lost the blue
Dark splendor of the sea.
Appears in Flame and Shadow, by Sara Teasdale (1920).
Music written by Sage Harrington.
Sage Harrington, vocals, 1920s martin soprano ukulele, guitar, bass
Meredith Wilder, vocals, nord electro 3
11. Debt, 4:06
What do I owe to you
Who loved me deep and long?
You never gave my spirit wings
Or gave my heart a song.
But oh, to him I loved,
Who loved me not at all,
I owe the little open gate
That led thru heaven’s wall.
Appears in Rivers to the Sea, by Sara Teasdale (1915).
Music written by Meredith Wilder.
Meredith Wilder, vocals, guitars
Sage Harrington, vocals, fiddle, bass
12. There Will Come Soft Rains (War Time), 2:52
There will come soft rains and the smell of the ground,
And swallows circling with their shimmering sound;
And frogs in the pools singing at night,
And wild plum trees in tremulous white,
Robins will wear their feathery fire
Whistling their whims on a low fence-wire;
And not one will know of the war, not one
Will care at last when it is done.
Not one would mind, neither bird nor tree
If mankind perished utterly;
And Spring herself, when she woke at dawn,
Would scarcely know that we were gone.
Appears in Flame and Shadow, by Sara Teasdale (1920).
Music written by Meredith Wilder and Sage Harrington.
Meredith Wilder, vocals, guitar
Sage Harrington, vocals, baritone ukulele
13. The Unseen, 2:51
Death went up the hall
Unseen by every one,
Trailing twilight robes
Past the nurse and the nun.
He paused at every door
And listened to the breath
Of those who did not know
How near they were to Death.
Death went up the hall
Unseen by nurse and nun;
He passed by many a door—
But he entered one.
Beautiful William 