I need some poetry, STAT.

Hello one and all,

I recently wrote a piece of music for a competition using some of Carl Sagan's more well-known quotations as the text to be sung; however, the estate has denied me rights to use it and I find myself in desperate need of some poetry (or artsy prose, whatever) that meets the following conditions:

1. Is in public domain in the U.S. and U.K.

B. Is in English

III. Is about or related to one of the following:

-Awe and wonder

-Outer space/the cosmos

-Man's innate curiosity

-Man's ability to accomplish anything

-Hope for the future/optimism

etc. etc. along those lines. If you've read/heard Sagan's more famous prose works and quotes, you have an idea of what I want aesthetics-wise. Thanks everbuddy in advance.

Try centuries-old science books.

The other day, ParanoidFreak needed to know a good place to find settable text. I've copied my reply to his topic below. Hope it helps!!! :D

You should Czech on WikiSource. It's basically a big public domain library. It's got tons of stuff, not just literature. It's got court documents and government pamphlets, etc. Anything in the public domain. Still, the stuff is organized pretty well, so you should be able to find a ton of poetry on there. A lot of the poetry is organized as part of the books they were originally published in. So for example, if I'm an old poet, I probably published a book of poetry. So on WikiSource, my poetry would be organized under my name>my book>my poem. Sometimes tho it's just poet>poetry. Either way, it's pretty easy to navigate, and you shouldn't have much trouble. At the bottom of each page, there's usually a gray box with a stricken-through copyright symbol on it telling you that it's in the public domain for such-and-such a reason, so you can be sure it's in the public domain. There are some txts that are only in the PD in certain countries, and others that have creative commons licenses, but that grey box at the bottom should tell you everything. This library is immense, so I'll try to start you off with a few authors, but I encourage you to explore until you find something that truly resonates with you and your beliefs.

Lets see here... well there's Emily Dickinson. I've never been a huge fan of her poetry, but you might be!

There's a Canadian poet, who is little known in the US, named Emily Pauline Johnson. She was part Native American, so a lot of her poetry has that theme to it.

A lot of people set poetry be Sara Teasdale. Songs like "I Am Not Yours" by Z. Randall Stroope and "There Will Be Rest" by Frank Ticheli are all settings of her poetry. Remember, though, just because it worked for them, doesn't necessarily mean it'll work for you. Choose a poem that really speaks to you, not just one that's popular. (Cuz also someone might be like, "Oh, that was cool, but I like Z.R.Stroope's better....") Still, Teasdale has a ton of poetry on WikiSource, so definitely check out her stuff. It's gorgeous. It might get a bit depressing at times, but she does a real good job conveying intensity of love. I'm not sure if ALL her poetry is in the PD. Idk if "There Will Be Rest" is, cuz I couldn't find it on WikiSource. Still, everything of hers on WikiSource should be in PD (just Czech the grey bar at the bottom.)

Let's try a man now... hmm William Wordsworth has a good amount of poems concerning the beauty of nature. Give him a look.

I also like Oscar Wilde and Edgar Allan Poe, but I've never set any of their stuff. Wilde's stuff can be really heavy at times, and Poe writes most of his stuff in an annoying bacchic trimeter (one-TWO-THREE one-TWO-THREE one-TWO-THREE). It sounds great at first cuz you think it'll make a great tune in 6/8. But then after a while, you're like, "This is really starting to get boring." But still, Czech those guys out.

I hope this helps you and anyone else out there looking for some decent poetry that they know is in the PD.

:D

(lol, Czech.)

--Miggy Torres