by Virginia Woolf (1882 - 1941)
Anxiety (October, 1920)
Language: English
Why is life so tragic; so like a little strip of pavement over an abyss. I look down; I feel giddy; I wonder how I am ever to walk to the end. But why do I feel this: Now that I say it I don't feel it. The fire burns; we are going to hear The Beggar's Opera. Only it lies all about me; I can't keep my eyes shut . . . And with it all how happy I am - if it weren't for my feeling that it's a strip of pavement over an abyss.
Note: this is a prose text; the line breaks are arbitrary.
Text Authorship:
- by Virginia Woolf (1882 - 1941) [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 Dominick Argento (1927 - 2019), "Anxiety (October, 1920)", from From the Diary of Virginia Woolf, no. 2. [ sung text checked 1 time]
Researcher for this page: Malcolm Wren [Guest Editor]
This text was added to the website: 2008-07-01
Line count: 7
Word count: 96