by Edna St. Vincent Millay (1892 - 1950)
Language: English
We were very tired, we were very merry — We had gone back and forth all night on the ferry. It was bare and bright, and smelled like a stable — But we looked into a fire, we leaned across a table, We lay on a hill-top underneath the moon; And the whistles kept blowing, and the dawn came soon. We were very tired, we were very merry — We had gone back and forth all night on the ferry. And you ate an apple, and I ate a pear, From a dozen of each we had bought somewhere; And the sky went wan, and the wind came cold, And the sun rose dripping, a bucketful of gold. We were very tired, we were very merry, We had gone back and forth all night on the ferry. We hailed, "Good morrow, mother!" to a shawl-covered head, And bought a morning paper, which neither of us read; And she wept, "God bless you!" for the apples and pears, And we gave her all our money but our subway fares.
Composition:
- Set to music by Jonathan Dove (b. 1959), "Recuerdo", 2015, first performed 2015 [ voice and piano ], from Nights Not Spent Alone, no. 1, confirmed with a concert programme booklet
Text Authorship:
- by Edna St. Vincent Millay (1892 - 1950), "Recuerdo", appears in A Few Figs from Thistles, first published 1920
See other settings of this text.
Researcher for this page: John Musto
This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 18
Word count: 178