Stephen Sondheim
Green Finch and Linnett Bird
[JOHANNA]
Green finch, and linnet bird
Nightingale, blackbird
How is it you sing?
How can you jubilate
Sitting in cages
Never taking wing?
Outside the sky waits
Beckoning!
Beckoning!
Just beyond the bars...
How can you remain
Staring at the rain
Maddened by the stars?
How is it you sing
Anything?
How is it you sing?

My cage has many rooms
Damask and dark...
Nothing there sings
Not even my lark
Larks never will, you know
When they're captive
Teach me to be more
Adaptive
Ah...
Green Finch, and Linnet Bird
Nightingale, blackbird
Teach me how to sing
If I cannot fly...
Let me sing