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by Edna St. Vincent Millay (1892 - 1950)

Elaine
Language: English 
Oh, come again to Astolat!
  I will not ask you to be kind.
And you may go when you will go,
  And I will stay behind.

I will not say how dear you are,
  Or ask you if you hold me dear,
Or trouble you with things for you
  The way I did last year.

So still the orchard, Lancelot,
  So very still the lake shall be,
You could not guess -- though you should guess --
  What is become of me.

So wide shall be the garden-walk,
  The garden-seat so very wide,
You needs must think -- if you should think --
  The lily maid had died.

Save that, a little way away,
  I'd watch you for a little while,
To see you speak, the way you speak,
  And smile, -- if you should smile.

Text Authorship:

  • by Edna St. Vincent Millay (1892 - 1950), "Elaine", appears in Second April, first published 1921 [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 John Woods Duke (1899 - 1984), "Elaine", 1935, G. Schirmer [sung text not yet checked]
  • by Constance Mills Herreshoff , "Elaine", published 1931 [sung text not yet checked]

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

This text was added to the website: 2008-06-03
Line count: 20
Word count: 131

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