E. E. Cummings

I’d rather learn from one bird how to sing / than teach ten thousand stars not to dance.

Source: "voices to voices, lip to lip", in is 5, E. E. Cummings, 1926

Authentic Cummings; the lines close the poem 'voices to voices, lip to lip', which I recall from the 1926 collection is 5. Note a wording variant: the poem reads 'than teach ten thousand stars how not to dance' — this copy drops 'how'. Confidence is high on the poet and the poem, moderate on the volume/year, hence 'attributed' rather than 'verified'.

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