Monday on the NewsHour: Natalie Merchant

On Monday’s NewsHour, Jeffrey Brown profiles singer-songwriter Natalie Merchant, who after a seven-year hiatus has just released a two-disc album titled “Leave Your Sleep,” a collection of 26 traditional poems set to original music. (Read what NewsHour producer Mary Jo Brooks has to say about the album here.)

Jeffrey Brown’s piece can be found here. An extended interview and additional performances by Merchant are at our Poetry Series page.

For our Weekly Poem, here’s Merchant performing “Equestrienne” by Rachel Field (1894-1942):

Equestrienne

See, they are clearing the sawdust course
For the girl in pink on the milk-white horse.
Her spangles twinkle; his pale flanks shine,
Every hair of his tail is fine
And bright as a comet’s; his mane blows free,
And she points a toe and bends a knee,
And while his hoofbeats fall like rain
Over and over and over again.
And nothing that moves on land or sea
Will seem so beautiful to me
As the girl in pink on the milk-white horse
Cantering over the sawdust course.