Carla Bruni's new album No Promises consists entirely of poems. The first track "These Dancing Days Are Gone" recasts William Butler Yeats as a Southern folk bard. Other poets who find themselves singing in accents and rhythms they may have never imagined possible are Auden, Dickinson, Rossetti, Parker and de la Mare.
Track 2: "Before the World Was Made" by William Butler YeatsIf I make the lashes dark
And the eyes more bright
And the lips more scarlet,
Or ask if all be right
From mirror after mirror,
No vanity's displayed:
I'm looking for the face I had
Before the world was made.What if I look upon a man
As though on my beloved,
And my blood be cold the while
And my heart unmoved?
Why should he think me cruel
Or that he is betrayed?
I'd have him love the thing that was
Before the world was made.
Bruni's revamped website (which I link to above) includes sections on each poet amid wistful photographs of stray pink balloons and Bruni's long legs. Sexy and educational.
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