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All in Green

[E. E. Cummings arr. Martin Carthy]

Martin Carthy sang and played E. E. Cummings’ poem All in Green on his 1988 album Right of Passage. Dave Swarbrick played fiddle. A live recording from the Half Moon, Putney, in November 1990 can be found on the charity compilation Georgia on Our Mind. Carthy noted on his album:

All in Green is a love poem by E. E. Cummings for which I had long wished to have a go at making a tune. Several false starts later I heard the minuet from Mozart’s Hunt Quartet, so I went out and bought a shoe horn and set of G clamps and tried again.

Lyrics

Martin Carthy sings All in Green

All in green went my love riding
On a great horse of gold
Into the silver dawn.

Four lean hounds crouched low and smiling
The merry deer ran before.

Fleeter be they than dappled dreams
The swift sweet deer
The red rare deer.

Four red roebuck at a white water
The cruel bugle sang before.

Horn at hip went my love riding
Riding the echo down
Into the silver dawn.

Four lean hounds crouched low and smiling
The level meadows ran before.

Softer be they than slippered sleep
The lean lithe deer
The fleet flown deer.

Four fleet does at a gold valley
The famished arrows sang before.

Bow at belt went my love riding
Riding the mountain down into the silver dawn.

Four lean hounds crouched low and smiling
The sheer peaks ran before.

Paler be they than daunting death
The sleek slim deer
The tall tense deer.

Four tall stags at a green mountain
The lucky hunter sang before.

All in green went my love riding
On a great horse of gold
Into the silver dawn.

Four lean hounds crouched low and smiling
My heart fell dead before.

Note

See NOT “e. e. cummings” and NOT “e. e. cummings” Revisited for the proper spelling of the poet’s name.