A Bell Awakened

An ode to "vocation" and answering the call to owning personal power.
Cover image for A Bell Awakened
Item Voicing Duration
JS-062 SSAA 3:00
Audio file
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Denise Levertov's poem invokes stirring imagery from the first poem in Ranier M. Rilke's Book of Hours.

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.