by Edna St. Vincent Millay (1892 - 1950)
All the grown‑up people say
Language: English
All the grown-up people say, "What, those ugly thistles? Mustn't touch them! Keep away! Prickly! Full of bristles!" Yet they never make me bleed Half so much as roses! Must be purple is a weed, and pink and white is posies.
About the headline (FAQ)
Authorship:
- by Edna St. Vincent Millay (1892 - 1950), no title, appears in Poems Selected for Young People, in From a Very Little Sphinx, no. 6, first published 1929 [author's text checked 1 time against a primary source]
Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive):
- by John Woods Duke (1899 - 1984), "Thistles and roses", 1971 [soprano or mezzo-soprano and piano], from From a Very Little Sphinx: Five Songs for Soprano or Mezzo-soprano, no. 2. [ sung text not yet checked against a primary source]
This text (or a part of it) is used in a work
- by Bernard Wagenaar (1894 - 1971), "From a very little sphinx", published 1926. [soprano or mezzo-soprano and piano]
Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]
This text was added to the website: 2011-02-13
Line count: 8
Word count: 41