First Song

Then it was dusk in Illinois a small boy

After an afternoon of carting dung hung

Hung on a rail fence, a sapped thing

So weary to crying

Dark was growing tall

He began to hear the pond frogs all calling on his ear

They were calling on his ear

They were calling on his ear with what seemed their joy

Soon the sound was pleasant for a boy

Listening in the smoky dusk and nightfall of Illinois

And from the fields two small boys came

Bearing cornstalk violins

So they rubbed the cornstalk bows with resins

And the three just sat there scraping of the joy

Of their joy, they're scraping of the joy

It was now fine music, the frogs and the boys did

In the towering Illinois twilight

Make and into dark in spite of a shoulder's ache

A boys hunched body loved out of a stalk

The first song of his happiness and the song woke his heart

To the darkness and sadness of joy

Dark was growing tall

He began to hear the pond frogs all calling on his ear

They were calling on his ear

They were calling on his ear with what seemed their joy