Kevin Gunia
composer and pianist

Premiere performance:

16 Mar 2024

Estelí Gomez, soprano; Grant Mack, piano

Berwick Hall, University of Oregon

Eugene, OR

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This text comes from a poem by American writer Ella Wheeler Wilcox, likely dating from the late nineteenth century. Wilcox was born into a Wisconsin farming family in 1850. Her family valued language and education; Ella was an avid reader and writer, already known throughout Wisconsin as a poet by the time she graduated high school. Publishers were hesitant to print her first collection of poetry, fearing that the intimate topics would be scandalous. However, Poems of Passion was published in 1883 and was an immediate success, earning $2000 in its first year alone – adjusted for inflation, $61,000 today. Wilcox wrote several more poetry collections, and an autobiography at the end of her life.

 

Ella married Robert Wilcox in 1884 and they lived together happily for over thirty years. They frequently hosted literary and artistic friends at their home in New York. Robert died in 1916; Ella, overcome with grief at the death of her husband, died three years later in 1919.

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Text by Ella Wheeler Wilcox:

 

I love your lips when they’re wet with wine

And red with a wild desire;

I love your eyes when the lovelight lies

Lit with a passionate fire.

I love your arms when the warm white flesh

Touches mine in a fond embrace;

I love your hair when the strands enmesh

Your kisses against my face.

 

Not for me the cold, calm kiss

Of a virgin’s bloodless love;

Not for me the saint’s white bliss,

Nor the heart of a spotless dove.

But give me the love that so freely gives

And laughs at the whole world’s blame,

With your body so young and warm in my arms,

It sets my poor heart aflame.

 

So kiss me sweet with your warm wet mouth,

Still fragrant with ruby wine,

And say with a fervor born of the South

That your body and soul are mine.

Clasp me close in your warm young arms,

While the pale stars shine above,

And we’ll live our whole young lives away

In the joys of a living love.