by Edna St. Vincent Millay (1892 - 1950)
Sonnet
Language: English
I shall go back again to the [bleak]1 shore And build a little shanty on the sand, In such a way that the extremest band Of brittle seaweed will escape my door But by a yard or two; and nevermore Shall I return to take you by the hand; I shall be gone to what I understand, And happier than I ever was before. The love that stood a moment in your eyes, The words that lay a moment on your tongue, Are one with all that in a moment dies, A little under-said and over-sung. But I shall find the sullen rocks and skies Unchanged from what they were when I was young.
View original text (without footnotes)
1 Briccetti: "bleak"; further changes may exist not noted.
Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]
1 Briccetti: "bleak"; further changes may exist not noted.
Text Authorship:
- by Edna St. Vincent Millay (1892 - 1950), appears in The Harp-Weaver and other poems, in Sonnets from an Ungrafted Tree, first published 1923 [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 Thomas B. Briccetti (b. 1936), "Sonnet" [SSATB chorus and piano], from Millaydy's Madrigals [text not verified]
Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]
This text was added to the website: 2009-10-02
Line count: 14
Word count: 114