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by Edna St. Vincent Millay (1892 - 1950)

Sweet love, sweet thorn
 (Sung text for setting by R. Manno)
 Matches base text
Language: English 
Sweet love, sweet thorn, when lightly to my heart
I took your thrust, whereby I since am slain,
And lie disheveled in the grass apart,
A sodden thing bedrenched by tears and rain,
While rainy evening drips to misty night,
And misty night to cloudy morning clears,
And clouds disperse across the gathering light,
And birds grow noisy, and the sun appears
Had I bethought me then, sweet love, sweet thorn,
How sharp an anguish even at the best,
When all's requited and the future sworn,
The happy Hour can leave within the breast,
I had not so come running at the call
Of one whoe loves me little, if at all.

Composition:

    Set to music by Robert Manno (b. 1944), "Sweet love, sweet thorn", published 1975 [ soprano, piano ], from Portrait of Millay, no. 3

Text Authorship:

  • by Edna St. Vincent Millay (1892 - 1950), appears in Fatal Interview, first published 1931

See other settings of this text.


Researcher for this page: Robert Manno

This text was added to the website: 2005-06-08
Line count: 14
Word count: 112

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