by Edna St. Vincent Millay (1892 - 1950)
Night is my sister, and how deep in love
Language: English
Night is my sister, and how deep in love, How drowned in love and weedily washed ashore, There to be fretted by the drag and shove At the tide's edge, I lie--these things and more: Whose arm alone between me and the sand, Whose voice alone, whose pitiful breath brought near, Could thaw these nostrils and unlock this hand, She could advise you, should you care to hear. Small chance, however, in a storm so black, A man will leave his friendly fire For a drowned woman's sake, and bring her back To drip and scatter shells upon the rug. No one but Night, with tears on her dark face, Watches beside me in this windy place.
About the headline (FAQ)
View text with all available footnotesText Authorship:
- by Edna St. Vincent Millay (1892 - 1950), no title, appears in Fatal Interview, first published 1931 [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 Joseph Deems Taylor (1885 - 1966), "Night is my sister, and how deep in love" [ voice and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
- by Miriam Gideon (1906 - 1996), "Night is my sister, and how deep in love", 1961 [ voice and piano ], from Three Sonnets from "Fatal Interview", no. 2 [sung text checked 1 time]
- by John Mitchell (b. 1941), "Night is my sister", op. 50 no. 1 (1983), from Five Sonnets by Edna St. Vincent Millay, no. 1 [sung text checked 1 time]
- by Elinor Remick Warren (1900 - 1991), "Night is my sister, and how deep in love", published 1974 [ soprano, string quartet or string orchestra ], from Sonnets [sung text not yet checked]
Researcher for this page: Victoria Brago
This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 14
Word count: 117