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by Edna St. Vincent Millay (1892 - 1950)

The Philosopher
Language: English 
And what are you that, wanting you,
I should be kept awake
As many nights as there are days
With weeping for your sake?

And what are you that, missing you,
As many days as crawl
I should be listening to the wind
And looking at the wall?

I know a man that’s a braver man
And twenty men as kind,
And what are you, that you should be
The one man in my mind?

Yet women’s ways are witless ways,
As any sage will tell, —
And what am I, that I should love
So wisely and so well?

Text Authorship:

  • by Edna St. Vincent Millay (1892 - 1950), appears in A Few Figs from Thistles [author's text not yet checked 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 Timothy Hoekman , "The Philosopher", 1990, published 1992 [ voice and piano ], from American Lyrics, no. 2 [sung text not yet checked]

Researcher for this page: Malcolm Wren [Guest Editor]

This text was added to the website: 2020-08-27
Line count: 16
Word count: 100

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