by Edna St. Vincent Millay (1892 - 1950)
Witch‑Wife
Language: English
She is neither pink nor pale,
And she never will be all mine;
She learned her hands in a fairy-tale,
And her mouth on a valentine.
She has more hair than she needs;
In the sun 'tis a woe to me!
And her voice is a string of colored beads,
Or steps leading into the sea.
She loves me all that she can,
And her ways to my ways resign;
But she was not made for any man,
And she never will be all mine.
Confirmed with Edna St. Vincent Millay, Collected Poems, Harper & Brothers Publishers
Text Authorship:
- by Edna St. Vincent Millay (1892 - 1950), "Witch-Wife", appears in Renascence and Other Poems, first published 1917 [author's text checked 1 time 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 Melissa Dunphy (b. 1980), "Witch-Wife", 2020, first performed 2021 [ ssaa chorus ], Mormolyke
Score: Mormolyke [external link] [sung text not yet checked]
Researcher for this page: Joost van der Linden [Guest Editor]
This text was added to the website: 2026-02-02
Line count: 12
Word count: 85