by Edna St. Vincent Millay (1892 - 1950)
Love is not all... Matches original text
Language: English
Love is not all: it is not meat nor drink Nor slumber nor a roof against the rain; Nor yet a floating spar to men that sink And rise and sink and rise and sink again; Love cannot fill the thickened lung with breath, Nor clean the blood, nor set the fractured bone; Yet many a man is making friends with death Even as I speak, for lack of love alone. It well may be that in a difficult hour, Pinned down by pain and moaning for release, Or nagged by want past resolution's power, I might be driven to sell your love for peace, Or trade the memory of this night for food. It well may be. I do not think I would.
Composition:
- Set to music by Alva Henderson (b. 1940), "Love is not all...", 1994, from Love is not all... , no. 1
Text Authorship:
- by Edna St. Vincent Millay (1892 - 1950), "Sonnet XXX", appears in Fatal Interview, first published 1931
See other settings of this text.
Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]
This text was added to the website: 2004-08-04
Line count: 14
Word count: 124