I got an understanding of how the Thames got so polluted, for one thing. Amazing to realize how people dissociate themselves as the ones responsible for stink and pollution, for example from slaughterhouses and tanneries, yet are the reason for their existence. And this idiocracy continues to this day, in a so-called more enlightened age. ( )

Hammerstein provides a collection of his Lyrics, dedicated "To Dorothy, the song is you". Excludes the lyrics written in collaboration with Otto Harbach, these words were put to music by the composer, Richard Rogers, who writes a Preface. Also, the songs written with Jerome Kern.

Hammerstein introduces the collection with practical and lucid "Notes" on how musicals are crafted. He provides the best explanation I have ever read in answer to the question, "Which comes first, the words or the music?" (!)

"Oklahoma!", "State Fair", "Carousel", "Allegro", "South Pacific". With Jerome Kern, "Show Boat", "Music in the Air" and others. With music by Georges Bizet, "Carmen Jones". And songs with Sigmund Romberg.

Some of the best poetry ever written. And, set to music!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Sample: From "The Last Time I saw Paris"
Her streets are where they were
But there's no sign of her--
She has left the Seine.

And after seeing a couple on Santa Monica beach:
...
Close enough to beauty I have been,
And, in all the whole wide land,
Here's the sweetest sight that I have seen--
One old couple walking hand in hand. ( )