The Animals
for baritone and piano
5. Polar Bear
Look into the white to see me.
I am the loneliness of a polar bear
as the ice melts beneath me.
I am the far beauty in an aviator's eyes,
but he is not beautiful to me.
Look down here, where I walk
in the vast, vacant air that surrounds me.
I scare the Finnish countryside.
The spirit of your forefathers is in me,
walking alone in the unframed cold,
a bit seen but, in the main, this unseen me.
I have not seen the beauty that you see.
I have not seen your love or care of me.
If ever you truly see me, you will draw
me ever larger. I patrol the very top
of a dying planet. I am not eternal.
I am dying, because I am not you.
Because I am me.
Written during the summer of 2009, The Animals is a cycle of nine songs written and dedicated to Stephen Swanson, who premiered them in
October of that year. Poet Marvin Bell created the texts specifically for this cycle. The work not only takes inspiration from the Ravel
and Poulenc animal songs, but is also rooted in the American tradition: Gershwin's Tin Pan Alley, and more recently the songs of
William Bolcom.