Two Songs , opus 28

by Ian Venables (b. 1955)

1. Flying crooked
(Sung text)

Language: English

The butterfly, the cabbage white
 [ ... ]

Text Authorship:

by Robert Graves (1895 - 1985), "Flying crooked", appears in Poems 1926-1930, first published 1931, copyright ©

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2. At Midnight [sung text not yet checked]

Language: English

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

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Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):

First published in Vanity Fair, November 1920