On hearing a Symphony of Beethoven | Sweet sounds, oh, beautiful music, do not cease!

by Edna St. Vincent Millay (1892 - 1950)

Sweet sounds, oh, beautiful music, do...

Language: English

Our translations: GER

Sweet sounds, oh, beautiful music, do not cease!
Reject me not into the world again.
With you alone is excellence and peace,
Mankind made plausible, his purpose plain.
Enchanted in your air benign and shrewd,
With limbs a-sprawl and empty faces pale,
The spiteful and the stingy and the rude
Sleep like the scullions in the fairy-tale.
This moment is the best the world can give:
The tranquil blossom on the tortured stem.
Reject me not, sweet sounds; oh, let me live,
Till Doom espy my towers and scatter them,
A city spell-bound under the aging sun.
Music my rampart, and my only one.

About the headline (FAQ)

Text Authorship:

by Edna St. Vincent Millay (1892 - 1950), "On hearing a Symphony of Beethoven", appears in The Buck in the Snow, first published 1928 [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), "Sweet sounds, o beautiful music", 1959 [ voice, viola, and piano ], from Three Sonnets for Voice, Viola and Piano, no. 1 [sung text not yet checked]
by Lloyd Alvin Pfautsch (b. 1921), "On hearing a Symphony of Beethoven", published 1966 [ soprano and SSA chorus a cappella ] [sung text not yet checked]
by Ivana M. Themmen , "On hearing a Symphony of Beethoven" [ soprano and orchestra ], from Shelter this candle from the wind [sung text not yet checked]

Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

This text was added to the website: 2008-10-02
Line count: 14
Word count: 104