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About the Composer
Elizabeth Alexander
Elizabeth Alexander (Seafarer Press)
To Make a Prairie
An ethereal setting of Emily Dickinson’s timeless meditation on creation.
SSA, piano
An introspective setting of Emily Dickinson’s timeless poem about creation. With ethereal vocal lines and a dreamlike piano part, To Make a Prairie invites the listener into a place of mystery and quiet awe.
Composer’s Notes
Emily Dickinson’s deceptively simple poem holds up three essential ingredients of creation: clover, bee, and revery. The clover is the raw material, the bee is its faithful courier, and the revery is…um…what exactly?
Revery is a luscious, old-fashioned word suggesting dreaming, imagination, and wonder. But when I first encountered this poem, I mistook it for an archaic form of “reverence,” which felt surprisingly apt. Meanwhile, my husband read the word as “revelry” – and I had to admit that celebration is pretty crucial, too!
Revery, reverence, or revelry? However it lands for you, Dickinson reminds us that creation is not about the mechanics. It springs from a mysterious, ineffable spark we can only imagine.
– Elizabeth Alexander
Text
To make a prairie it takes a clover and one bee —
One clover, and a bee,
And revery.
The revery alone will do,
If bees are few.
– Emily Dickinson
$3.00 per licensed PDF
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