Purple Martins

A setting for unaccompanied Men's Chorus (TTBB)
of the poem by Carl Sandburg

Commissioned by Constellation Men's Ensemble
as part of their 2025 NOVA Music Series, Chicago, IL

Duration: ca. 4'

Text · Performance History · Purchase Sheet Music

Greg Bartholomew Choral ยท Purple Martins (Constellation Men's Ensemble)

Carl Sandburg (1878-1967) was an American poet. Much of his work concerned Chicago, where he worked as a reporter. He earned three Pulitzer Prizes for his poetry and for his biography of Abraham Lincoln. His poem Purple Martins first appeared in a collection titled Smoke and Steel, published in 1920.

Purple Martins

by Carl Sandburg

If we were such and so, the same as these,
maybe we too would be slingers and sliders,
tumbling half over in the water mirrors,
tumbling half over at the horse heads of the sun,
tumbling our purple numbers.

Twirl on, you and your satin blue.
Be water birds, be air birds.
Be these purple tumblers you are.

Dip and get away
From loops into slip-knots,
Write your own ciphers and figure eights.
It is your wooded island here in Lincoln park.
Everybody knows this belongs to you.

Five fat geese
Eat grass on a sod bank
And never count your slinging ciphers,
your sliding figure eights.

A man on a green paint iron bench,
Slouches his feet and sniffs in a book,
And looks at you and your loops and slip-knots,
And looks at you and your sheaths of satin blue,
And slouches again and sniffs in the book,
And mumbles: It is an idle and a doctrinaire exploit.
Go on tumbling half over in the water mirrors.
Go on tumbling half over at the horse heads of the sun.
Be water birds, be air birds.
Be these purple tumblers you are.





Carl Sandburg (1878 -1967)

Purchase Sheet Music

Sheet music for Purple Martins is available from: J.W. Pepper.

Performance History

World premiere performances by the Constellation Men's Ensemble were presented June 6, 7 & 8, 2025, in Chicago.