The Blue Bird

• The Blue Bird is a partsong (an a cappella choral song setting secular text) written in 1910 setting the poem, “The Blue Bird” by Mary Elizabeth Coleridge.¹
  • Published in 1897, Coleridge initially used the French version of the title for her poem: “L’Oiseau Bleu.” During her lifetime, the poem was published under Coleridge’s pseudonym, “Anodos.”
• Listen for – the lack of resolution in the song’s final chord, representing “an inimitable version of the eternal.”

The Blue Bird

The lake lay blue below the hill.
O’er it, as I looked, there flew
Across the waters, cold and still,
A bird whose wings were palest blue.

The sky above was blue at last,
The sky beneath me blue in blue.
A moment, ere the bird had passed,
It caught his image as he flew.²

1. “The Blue Bird,” J. W. Pepper, accessed November 13, 2024, https://www.jwpepper.com/The-Blue-Bird/10759735.item?srsltid=AfmBOoqEFVPLS5yb7wLwjQBgMpEsvJ5ZeJ97L3opurJKDtiubqVtV8e9.
2. Wikipedia contributors, “The Blue Bird (Stanford),” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=The_Blue_Bird_(Stanford)&oldid=1242775762 (accessed November 13, 2024).