1972
The Planet on the Table
Composed by 
Ned Rorem
Ned Rorem Text by 
Wallace Stevens
Wallace Stevens Last Poems of Wallace Stevens Song Collection
"The Planet on the Table" is the fourth poem and song in Ned Rorem's Last Poems of Wallace Stevens. "The Planet on the Table" is for soprano, cello, and piano.
Text
The Planet on the Table
by Wallace Stevens
Ariel was glad he had written his poems.
They were of a remembered time
Or of something seen that he liked.
Other makings of the sun
Were waste and welter
And the ripe shrub writhed.
His self and the sun were one
And his poems, although makings of his self,
Were no less makings of the sun.
It was not important that they survive.
What mattered was that they should bear
Some lineament or character,
Some affluence, if only half-perceived,
In the poverty of their words,
Of the planet of which they were part.
–The Palm at the End of the Mind: Selected Poems and a Play
Sheet Music
Last Poems of Wallace Stevens
Ned Rorem
1. Not Ideas about the Thing but the Thing Itself
2. The River of Rivers in Connecticut
3. A Child Asleep in Its Own Life
4. The Planet on the Table
5. The Dove in Spring
6. Of Mere Being
7. A Clear Day and No Memories
2. The River of Rivers in Connecticut
3. A Child Asleep in Its Own Life
4. The Planet on the Table
5. The Dove in Spring
6. Of Mere Being
7. A Clear Day and No Memories