I shall forget you presently, my dear, So make the most of this, your little day, Your little month, your little half a year, Ere I forget, or die, or move away, And we are done forever; by and by I shall forget you, as I said, but now, If you entreat me with your loveliest lie I will protest you with my favorite vow. I would indeed that love were longer-lived, And [vows]1 were not so brittle as they are, But so it is, and nature has contrived To struggle on without a break thus far, -- Whether or not we find what we are seeking Is idle, biologically speaking.
Two Millay Sonnets
Song Cycle by Jack Hamilton Beeson (b. 1921)
1. I shall forget you presently  [sung text not yet checked]
Text Authorship:
- by Edna St. Vincent Millay (1892 - 1950), no title, appears in Four Sonnets, no. 4, first published 1922
See other settings of this text.
Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):
- GER German (Deutsch) [singable] (Walter A. Aue) , "Ich werd' Dich bald vergessen, teurer Schatz", copyright © 2010, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
1 Wheeler: "oaths"
Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]
2. What lips my lips have kissed  [sung text not yet checked]
What lips my lips have kissed, and where, and why, I have forgotten, and what arms have lain Under my head till morning; but the rain Is full of ghosts tonight, that tap and sigh Upon the glass and listen for reply, And in my heart there stirs a quiet pain For unremembered lads that not again Will turn to me at midnight with a cry. Thus in winter stands the lonely tree, Nor knows what birds have vanished one by one, Yet knows its boughs more silent than before: I cannot say what loves have come and gone, I only know that summer sang in me A little while, that in me sings no more.
Text Authorship:
- by Edna St. Vincent Millay (1892 - 1950), "Sonnet XLIII", appears in The Harp-Weaver and other poems, in Sonnets from an Ungrafted Tree, first published 1923
See other settings of this text.
Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):
- FRI Frisian [singable] (Geart van der Meer) , copyright © 2015, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
- GER German (Deutsch) [singable] (Walter A. Aue) , "Welch' Lippen meine küßten ( 43. Sonett )", copyright © 2010, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
Researcher for this page: Robert Manno