Program Note:   

The opposite of dehumanization is anthropomorphism — the attribution of human characteristics or behavior to a god, animal, or object. In her slender volume of verse, Margaret G. Hayes elected to anthropomorphize an entire gardenful of vegetables. From her charming literary cornucopia I harvested, at Tracy Cowden's urging, just nine — (in order of appearance): cucumbers, corn, oyster plants, parsley, celery, beans, squash, lettuce, tomatoes, turnips, eggplants, and Marrowfat peas.

I admire the subversiveness of Hayes' bagatelles. On the surface, her poems are arch, and a little silly, the poetry verging on doggerel. However, Hayes' often tart observations about her fellow humans and their foibles ring with a beguilingly prim, fierce dignity that pre-date Dorothy Parker and the Vicious Circle. There was room, I felt, for the addition of music, which heightens characterization, and creates a context in which the listener is encouraged (or not) to empathize with the warm humanity underlying Hayes' observations.

Commissioned by Tracy Cowden with support from the Niles Faculty Research Award through the College of Liberal Arts and Human Sciences at Virginia Tech, the complete cycle lasts fifteen minutes. It was premiered by Tracy Cowden and Caroline Worra on 27 April 2011, in the Virginia Tech Auditorium.