by Edna St. Vincent Millay (1892 - 1950)
The beast that rends me in the sight of...
Language: English
The beast that rends me in the sight of it all, This love, this longing, this oblivious thing That has me under as the last leaves fall Will glut will sicken will be gone by spring The wound will heal, the fever will abate, The knotted hurt will slacken in the breast I shall forget before the flickers mate Your look that is today my east and west Unscathed, however, from a claw so deep Though I should love again I shall not go Along my body, walking while I sleep Sharp to the kiss, cold to the hand as snow The scar of this encounter like a sword Will lie between me and my troubled lord.
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Text Authorship:
- by Edna St. Vincent Millay (1892 - 1950), no title, appears in Fatal Interview, first published 1931 [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 Elinor Remick Warren (1900 - 1991), "The beast that rends me in the sight of it all", alternate title: "The beast that rends me in the sight of it all", published 1974 [ soprano and string quartet or strings ], from Sonnets [sung text not yet checked]
Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]
This text was added to the website: 2021-10-10
Line count: 14
Word count: 117