A Bell Awakened

- from the DARE TO BE POWERFUL choral series -

An ode to the power of "I can", Denise Levertov's poem pays homage to a poem by Ranier M. Rilke (1875-1926) by invoking the stirring imagery from Rilke's poem and further exploring and personalizing the notion of "vocation" .

Cover image for A Bell Awakened
Item Voicing Duration
JS-062 SSAA 3:00
Audio file
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Women & Trebles
Difficulty
Moderate
Advanced

"Variations on a Theme by Rilke"

Denise Levertov (1923-1997)

A certain day became a presence to me;
there it was, confronting me-a sky, air, light:
a being. And before it started to descend
from the height of noon, it leaned over
and struck my shoulder as if with
the flat of a sword, granting me
honor and a task. The day's blow
rang out, metallic-or it was I, a bell awakened,
and what I heard was my whole self
saying and singing what it knew: I can.