by Edna St. Vincent Millay (1892 - 1950)
Mariposa
Language: English
Butterflies are white and blue In this field we wander through. Suffer me to take your hand. Death comes in a day or two. All the things we ever knew Will be ashes in that hour. Mark the transient butterfly, How he hangs upon a flower. Suffer me to take your hand, Suffer me to cherish you Till the dawn is in the sky, Whether I be false or true. Death comes in a day or two.
Text Authorship:
- by Edna St. Vincent Millay (1892 - 1950), from Second April, first published 1921 [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 Eric Ewazen (b. 1954), "Mariposa", 1987 [ low voice and piano ], from Songs of Love and Loss, no. 2 [sung text not yet checked]
- by Lynn Steele (1951 - 2002), "Mariposa" [ mezzo-soprano and piano ], from Seven Songs of Edna St. Vincent Millay, no. 6 [sung text checked 1 time]
Researcher for this page: Lynn Steele
This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 13
Word count: 78