Mr. Earle has acquainted me with your wild surmises. Gentlemen: I must convince you of your error; my reputation is at stake. I simply will not be a “brawny male.” Not that I have an aversion to brawny males; au contraire, au contraire. But I cling to my femininity! Is it that you consider brain and brawn so inseparable? — I have thought otherwise. Still, that is all a matter of personal opinion. But, gentlemen: when a woman insists that she is twenty, you must not, must not call her forty-five. That is more than wicked; it is indiscreet. Mr. Ficke, you are a lawyer. I am very much afraid of lawyers. Spare me, kind sir! Take into consideration my youth — for I am indeed but twenty — and my fragility — for “I do protest I am a maid” — and — sleuth me no sleuths! Seriously: I thank you also for the compliment you have unwittingly given me. For tho I do not yet aspire to be forty-five and brawny, if my verse so represents me, I am more gratified than I can say. When I was a little girl, this is what I thought and wrote: Let me not shout into the world’s great ear Ere I have something for the world to hear. Then let my message like an arrow dart And pierce a way into the world’s great heart.
Letters from Edna -- 8 songs for Mezzo and Piano
Song Cycle by Juliana Hall (b. 1958)
1. To Mr. Ficke and Mr. Bynner  [sung text checked 1 time]
Authorship:
- by Edna St. Vincent Millay (1892 - 1950), no title, written 1912
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Excerpt from a letter to Mr. Ficke and Mr. Bynner (December 5, 1912, Camden, Maine). Letter no. 9.Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]
2. To Arthur Davison Ficke  [sung text checked 1 time]
Shall I give your regards to Broadway, — now that I am here within hailing distance of it? To any question that you might raise concerning my presence in this locality I could only answer, “I’m here because I’m here because I’m here.” And I might add that I expect to take a few courses at Columbia this semester. Yesterday I got a note from Sara Teasdale, inviting me to take tea with her. Whaddayouknowaboutthat! The news of my arrival has sprud clean from here to East 29th Street! How do I like New York? O, inexpressibly! Yes, the Public Library is! No, the subway isn’t! O, the St. Patrick Cathedral! — Quite too sweet, I assure you! And the view — charming, charming! So many roofs and things, you know; warships, and chimneys, and brewery signs — so inspiring! Yes, to the Madison Avenue Presbyterian! Dr. Coffin is wonderful. O, my dear, — tremendous!
Authorship:
- by Edna St. Vincent Millay (1892 - 1950), written 1913
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An excerpt from a letter to Arthur Davison Ficke (February 9, 1913, New York). Letter no. 18.Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]
3. To Anne Gardner Lynch  [sung text checked 1 time]
I have just got your letter. Oh, if I could just get my arms about you! — And stay with you like that for hours, telling you so many things, & listening to all that you must have to say. — I love you very much, dear Anne, & I always shall. — Ours was a perfect friendship — I knew it at the time — and it is still just as true. I would do anything in the world for you, & I know that you would for me. — And it doesn’t matter if we never write, and never see each other, it is just the same, — except that it would be so nice to see each other!
Authorship:
- by Edna St. Vincent Millay (1892 - 1950), no title, written 1921
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An excerpt from a letter to Anne Gardner Lynch (December 23, 1921, Vienna, Austria). Letter No. 96.
Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]
4. To Harriet Monroe  [sung text checked 1 time]
Spring is here, — and I could be very happy, except that I am broke. Would you mind paying me now instead of on publication for those so stunning verses of mine which you have? I am become very, very thin, and have taken to smoking Virginia tobacco. P.S. I am awfully broke. Would you mind paying me a lot?
Authorship:
- by Edna St. Vincent Millay (1892 - 1950), no title, written 1918
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A letter to Harriet Monroe (March 1, 1918, New York City). Letter No. 56.
Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]
5. To Norma Millay  [sung text checked 1 time]
I am working like the devil, which is why I don’t write more letters — & I suppose you are, too — which is why you don’t write more letters, — but it does seem a long long time, little sweet sing, since us heard from each other! — I have your beautiful photograph right up in front of me on my work table, & as I do a lot of work, I just naturally has to look at it, whether I want to or not, but the joke is on it, because I allus wants to!
Authorship:
- by Edna St. Vincent Millay (1892 - 1950), no title, written 1921
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An excerpt from a letter to Norma Millay (May 25, 1921, Paris). Letter No. 81.
Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]
6. To Arthur Davison Ficke  [sung text checked 1 time]
I have wanted so often to write you -- not that I like writing letters -- I loathe it — but just that I have wanted to write to you. About what, I don’t know, in particular. -- Perhaps to ask the advice of the Sage of the Hill -- perhaps to tell you that the young wrens in the house under the peak of the ice-house are flying this morning (and what a to-do! And what beautiful singing from their father! -- as if to say: some day you will have as handsome feathers as I, and a tail that sticks up straight behind your rump, and a song as beautiful as mine -- you boys, that is, -- and even you girls will have fun, engineering long twigs through small doorways!) -- this is just to say Hello, darling Artie. --
Authorship:
- by Edna St. Vincent Millay (1892 - 1950), no title, written 1943
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A letter to Arthur Davison Ficke (July 9, 1943, Steepletop – Austerlitz, New York). Letter No. 238.
Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]
7. To Arthur Davison Ficke  [sung text checked 1 time]
It’s not true that life is one damn thing after another — it’s one damn thing over & over — there’s the rub — first you get sick — then you get sicker — then you get not quite so sick — then you get hardly sick at all — then you get a little sicker — then you get a lot sicker — then you get not quite so sick — oh, hell
Authorship:
- by Edna St. Vincent Millay (1892 - 1950), no title, written 1930
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A letter to Arthur Davison Ficke (October 24, 1930). Letter No. 171.
Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]
8. To Mother  [sung text checked 1 time]
Do you know, almost all people love their mothers, but I have never met anybody in my life, I think, who loved his mother as much as I love you. I don’t believe there ever was anybody who did, quite so much, and quite in so many wonderful ways. I was telling somebody yesterday that the reason I am a poet is entirely because you wanted me to be and intended I should be, even from the very first. You brought me up in the tradition of poetry, and everything I did you encouraged. Some parents of children that are “different” have so much to reproach themselves with. But not you, Great Spirit. If I didn’t keep calling you mother, anybody reading this would think I was writing to my sweetheart. And he would be quite right. Well, dear, this is enough for now. I will write again soon.
Authorship:
- by Edna St. Vincent Millay (1892 - 1950), no title, written 1921
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A letter to her mother (June 15, 1921, Paris). Letter No. 82.
Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]