Now by this moon, before this moon shall wane
DURATION
2’45”
INSTRUMENTATION
SATB (div.) a cappella
AUDIO
Grant Park Chorus; Christopher Bell, conductor
Songs of Smaller Creatures, Cedille Records CDR 90000 131 • Purchase recording
POET
Edna St. Vincent Millay
YEAR COMPOSED
2004
COMMISSIONER
Volti
THIS IS A MOVEMENT FROM:
Sonnets of Desire, Longing, and Whimsy
ORDERING SCORES
Inkjar Publishing Company
Click here to email Inkjar for purchasing options
PERUSAL SCORE
Click here
TEXT
Now by this moon, before this moon shall wane
I shall be dead or I shall be with you!
No moral concept can outweigh the pain
Past rack and wheel this absence puts me through;
Faith, honour, pride, endurance, what the tongues
Of tedious men will say, or what the law—
For which of these do I fill up my lungs
With brine and fire at every breath I draw?
Time, and to spare, for patience by and by,
Time to be cold and time to sleep alone;
Let me no more until the hour I die
Defraud my innocent senses of their own.
Before this moon shall darken, say of me:
She's in her grave, or where she wants to be.