For Good – simplified

For Good

Kristin Chenoweth and Idina Menzel, Wicked, 2003.

Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande, Wicked: For Good, 2025.

Writer: Stephen Schwartz

Producer: Stephen Schwartz

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Elphaba:

     I’m limited,

just look at me –    I’m li  -mited.

And just look at you, you can do all I couldn’t do,

Glinda.

So now it’s up to you,

for both of us.

Now it’s up to you…

Glinda

I’ve heard it said

that people come into our lives

for a reason,

bringing something we must learn.

And we are led

to those who help us most to grow,

if we let them

and we help them in return.

     Well, I don’t know if I believe that’s true,

but I know I’m who I am today

because I knew you.

Like a comet pulled from orbit

as it passes a sun,

like a stream that meets a boulder

halfway     through the wood,

     who can say if I’ve been changed for the better?

But      because I knew you,

I have      been changed for good.

Elphaba:

     It well may be

    that we will never meet again

in this lifetime,

so let me say bef    -ore we part.

So much of     me

is made of what I learned from you,

you’ll     be with me,

like a handprint on my heart.

    And now     whatever way our stories end,

I know you have re-written mine

by being my friend.

Like a ship blown from its mooring

by a wind off the sea,

like a seed dropped by      a skybird

in a dis     -tant wood,

    who can say if I’ve been changed for the better?

But      because I knew you,

Glinda:

    Because I knew you,

Both:

I have been     changed     for good.

Elphaba:

And just to clear the air,

I ask forgiveness for the things I’ve done     you blame     me for.

Glinda:

    But then, I guess we know there’s blame to share,

Both:

and none of it seems to matter anymore

Glinda, Elphaba in (parentheses)

Like a co   -met pulled from orbit

                        (Like a ship blown)

as it       passes a       sun,

(from its mooring) (by a wind off the)

like a stream that meets a boulder

(sea,)                            (like a seed dropped by a)

halfway through the wood.

(bird)             (in the wood.)

Both:

     Who can say if I’ve been changed for the better?

I do believe I have been changed for the better,

Glinda:

     And because I knew you,

Elphaba:

     Because I knew you,

Both:

     Because I knew you,

I have been changed

for good.