LiederNet logo

CONTENTS

×
  • Home | Introduction
  • Composers (20,267)
  • Text Authors (19,766)
  • Go to a Random Text
  • What’s New
  • A Small Tour
  • FAQ & Links
  • Donors
  • DONATE

UTILITIES

  • Search Everything
  • Search by Surname
  • Search by Title or First Line
  • Search by Year
  • Search by Collection

CREDITS

  • Emily Ezust
  • Contributors (1,116)
  • Contact Information
  • Bibliography

  • Copyright Statement
  • Privacy Policy

Follow us on Facebook

by Edna St. Vincent Millay (1892 - 1950)

I too beneath your moon, almighty sex
 (Sung text for setting by J. Dove)
 Matches original text
Language: English 
I too beneath your moon, almighty Sex,
Go forth at nightfall crying like a cat,
Leaving the lofty tower I labored at
For birds to foul and boys and girls to vex
With tittering chalk; and you, and the long necks
Of neighbors sitting where their mothers sat
Are well aware of shadowy this and that
In me, that's neither noble nor complex.
Such as I am, however, I have brought
To what it is, this tower; it is my own;
Though it was reared To Beauty, it was wrought
From what I had to build with: honest bone
Is there, and anguish; pride; and burning thought;
And lust is there, and nights not spent alone. 

Composition:

    Set to music by Jonathan Dove (b. 1959), "I too beneath your moon, almighty sex", 2015, first performed 2015 [ voice and piano ], from Nights Not Spent Alone, no. 3, confirmed with a concert programme booklet

Text Authorship:

  • by Edna St. Vincent Millay (1892 - 1950), appears in Huntsman, What Quarry?, first published 1939

See other settings of this text.


Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

This text was added to the website: 2008-10-02
Line count: 14
Word count: 116

Gentle Reminder

This website began in 1995 as a personal project by Emily Ezust, who has been working on it full-time without a salary since 2008. Our research has never had any government or institutional funding, so if you found the information here useful, please consider making a donation. Your help is greatly appreciated!
–Emily Ezust, Founder

Donate

We use cookies for internal analytics and to earn much-needed advertising revenue. (Did you know you can help support us by turning off ad-blockers?) To learn more, see our Privacy Policy. To learn how to opt out of cookies, please visit this site.

I acknowledge the use of cookies

Contact
Copyright
Privacy

Copyright © 2025 The LiederNet Archive

Site redesign by Shawn Thuris