What lips my lips have kissed...

"What lips my lips have kissed..." sets a sonnet of Edna St. Vincent Millay and was premiered at the Hellas Festival in New York City. "What lips my lips have kissed..." is the second song of Henderson's cycle "Love is not all...", which sets four sonnets of Millay.

"What lips my lips have kissed..." is from Millay's volume The Harp-Weaver, published in 1923.
For visitors interested in obtaining the score to this song, please contact [email protected].

Date: 1994Composer: Alva HendersonText: Edna St. Vincent MillaySong Collection: Love is not all...

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What lips my lips have kissed, and where, and why,
I have forgotten, and what arms have lain
Under my head till morning; but the rain
Is full of ghosts tonight, that tap and sigh
Upon the glass and listen for reply;
And in my heart there stirs a quiet pain
For unremembered lads that not again
Will turn to me at midnight with a cry.
Thus in the winter stands a lonely tree,
Nor knows what birds have vanished one by one,
Yet know its boughs more silent than before:
I cannot say what loves have come and gone;
I only know that summer sang in me
A little while, that in me sings no more.

by Edna St. Vincent Millay

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