The Pear & Sweet Plantain

(2019)

for countertenor, oboe & harp

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score available through The Australian Music Centre

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duration: 4’

genre: Chamber - Small, Song

category: Ambrosia, Utile Dulci

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Juicy on the teeth is a pear,

Tasty is a pear to the tongue,

Yummy in the mouth ev’rywhere

Is the tasty pear for ev’ryone!

Squishy on the teeth is plantain,

Sweetly is plaintain to the tongue,

Scrummy in the mouth yet again

Is the sweet plantain for ev’ryone!

So then, how to choose

Betwixt the pear and sweet plantain?

‘Tis impossible to refuse

The promises of either frame…

Then why choose at all? Both are ripe

For fervent plucking, whate’er the type!

Oh, but how to choose

Betwixt the pear and sweet plantain?

Ah, but which to lose,

And thus heart’s harvest e’er retain?

Such wondrously remote preserves

Present the pear and sweet plantain;

One speckled gently ‘round its curves,

The other proud, erect and plain.

With touch as well, a world apart:

Soft flesh a skin cannot constrain

So far from hard, encaséd shaft

Makes distant pear from sweet plantain.

But in one thing, they are as one:

To sup on both is glorious fun!

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