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by Edna St. Vincent Millay (1892 - 1950)

The Dream
Language: English 
Love, if I weep it will not matter,
  And if you laugh I shall not care;
Foolish am I to think about it,
  But it is good to feel you there.

Love, in my sleep I dreamed of waking, --
  White and awful the moonlight reached
Over the floor, and somewhere, somewhere,
  There was a shutter loose, -- it screeched!

Swung in the wind, -- and no wind blowing! --
  I was afraid, and turned to you,
Put out my hand to you for comfort, --
  And you were gone!  Cold, cold as dew,

Under my hand the moonlight lay!
  Love, if you laugh I shall not care,
But if I weep it will not matter, --
  Ah, it is good to feel you there!
Ah, it is good to feel you there!

View text with all available footnotes

Text Authorship:

  • by Edna St. Vincent Millay (1892 - 1950), "The Dream", appears in Renascence and Other Poems, first published 1917 [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 Eric Ewazen (b. 1954), "The Dream", 1987 [ low voice and piano ], from Songs of Love and Loss, no. 1 [sung text not yet checked]
  • by John Mitchell (b. 1941), "The Dream", op. 51 (Five Lyrics by Edna St. Vincent Millay) no. 4 (1983) [sung text checked 1 time]

Researcher for this page: Victoria Brago

This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 17
Word count: 127

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