b. 1892d. 1950
Edna St. Vincent Millay
Edna St. Vincent Millay, American poet and playwright, was the first woman to win the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry.
Photo: Edna St. Vincent Millay, taken by Carl Van Vechten, 1933, courtesy of Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division.
Audio
“And You As Well Must Die…” (from “Love is not all…”)
Susan Gundunas (soprano) & Daniel Lockert (piano)2:15
“Huntsman, What Quarry?” (from “Huntsman, What Quarry?”)
Nancy Keith (soprano), Gregory Hustis French (horn) & Simon Sargon (piano)4:55
” Love is not all…” (from “Love is not all…”)
Susan Gundunas (soprano) & Daniel Lockert (piano)3:29
“Some Things Are Dark” (from “Night Dances”)
Dawn Upshaw (soprano) & Margo Garrett (piano)0:59
“The Buck In The Snow” (from “Huntsman, What Quarry?”)
Nancy Keith (soprano), Gregory Hustis French (horn) & Simon Sargon (piano)6:53
“To Norma Millay” (from “Letters From Edna”)
Katherine Eberle (mezzo-soprano) & Juliana Hall (piano)0:40
“What lips my lips have kissed…” (from “Love is not all…”)
Susan Gundunas (soprano) & Daniel Lockert (piano)4:14
“When we are old” (from “Love is not all…”)
Susan Gundunas (soprano) & Daniel Lockert (piano)3:53
“Even in the Moment” (from “Four Songs”)
Leberta Lorál, sporano; Jeffrey Sykes, piano3:06
“Feast” (from “Four Songs”)
Leberta Lorál, soprano; Jeffrey Sykes, piano1:24
“I Know My Mind” (from “Four Songs”)
Leberta Lorál, soprano; Jeffrey Sykes, piano3:04
“What lips my lips have kissed” (from “Four Songs”)
Leberta Lorál, soprano; Jeffrey Sykes, piano2:58
Hyacinth
Daveda Karanas, mezzo-soprano; Michael Ippolito, piano3:02
About
A native of Maine, Millay earned her first award for poetry in 1912 with her poem “Renaescence,” a lyric poem which continues to be one of her most popular poems to this day. Millay is also well-known as a innovator of the sonnet form, and many of her sonnets express modern concerns of life and love within the five-century old poetic form.
Millay graduated from Vassar and then lived many years in Greenwich Village; her plays were performed often in New York City. She was as famous for her relationships, with both men and women, as for her writing, and her work often expresses a woman’s struggle between disinterest and passion. In 1923, Millay married the lawyer Eugen Jan Boissevain, and the two bought a farm in Maine. However, their relationship was an open one, with both taking lovers throughout their lives. Millay was found dead at the bottom of a flight of steps in 1950, a year after her husband’s death.
–Christie Finn and Miriam Lewin
Photo Credit: Carl Van Vechten, Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division
Related Information
Poetry Foundation
poetryfoundation.org/poets/edna-st-vincent-millayMezzo Cammin Timeline Project
mezzocammin.com/timeline/timeline.php?vol=timeline&iss=1800&cat=90&page=millayModern American Poetry
modernamericanpoetry.org/poet/edna-st-vincent-millaySongs
5 Songs For Children1999Lita GrierEdna St. Vincent Millay, Amy Lowell, Walter De la Mare, Christina Rossetti, Emily Huntington MillerA Horse With Wings1995Ricky Ian GordonEmily Dickinson, Ricky Ian Gordon, John Hollander, Edna St. Vincent Millay, Frank O’Hara, Dorothy ParkerAfternoon on a Hill1945John Woods DukeEdna St. Vincent MillayAfternoon on a Hill1995 · A Horse With WingsRicky Ian GordonEdna St. Vincent MillayAfternoon on a Hill1999 · 5 Songs For ChildrenLita GrierEdna St. Vincent MillayAnd you as well must die…1994 · Love is not all…Alva HendersonEdna St. Vincent MillayBefore the Storm1998Jake HeggieEmily Dickinson, Edna St. Vincent Millay, Dorothy ParkerBranch by Branch1960 · Five Millay SongsH. Leslie AdamsEdna St. Vincent MillayChristmas Carol (To Jesus on His Birthday)1991 · Quiet SongsJohn MustoEdna St. Vincent MillayEvidence of Things Not Seen1997Ned RoremW. H. Auden, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Robert Browning, Stephen Crane, Mark Doty, Robert Frost, Paul Goodman, A. E. Housman, Langston Hughes, Jane Kenyon, Rudyard Kipling, Edna St. Vincent Millay, Paul Monette, William Penn, Theodore Roethke, Walt Whitman, John Woolman, William Butler YeatsFive Millay Songs1960H. Leslie AdamsEdna St. Vincent MillayFor You There is No Song1960 · Five Millay SongsH. Leslie AdamsEdna St. Vincent MillayFour Seasons, op. 1232013Lowell LiebermannEdna St. Vincent MillayGone Again is Summer the Lovely1960 · Five Millay SongsH. Leslie AdamsEdna St. Vincent MillayHuntsman, What Quarry?1990 · Huntsman, What Quarry?Simon SargonEdna St. Vincent MillayHuntsman, What Quarry?1990Simon SargonEdna St. Vincent MillayI shall forget you1990 · Wasting the NightScott WheelerEdna St. Vincent MillayI Will Breathe a Mountain1991William BolcomElizabeth Bishop, Louise Bogan, Gwendolyn Brooks, Edna St. Vincent Millay, H. D., Emily Dickinson, Alice Fulton, Denise Levertov, Marianne Moore, Anne Sexton, May SwensonLetters From Edna1989Juliana HallEdna St. Vincent MillayLove Cannot Fill1997 · Evidence of Things Not SeenNed RoremEdna St. Vincent MillayLove is not all1994Alva HendersonEdna St. Vincent MillayLove is not all…1994 · Love is not all…Alva HendersonEdna St. Vincent MillayNight Dances1987Juliana HallElizabeth Bishop, Emily Brontë, Emily Dickinson, Edna St. Vincent Millay, Sylvia PlathNot In a Silver Casket1999 · Songs and Sonnets to OpheliaJake HeggieEdna St. Vincent MillayPity Me Not Because the Light of Day1991 · I Will Breathe a MountainWilliam BolcomEdna St. Vincent MillayQuiet Songs1991Léonie Adams, E. E. Cummings, Edna St. Vincent Millay, Eugene O’Neill, Arthur SymonsRecuerdo1990 · Wasting the NightScott WheelerEdna St. Vincent MillaySongs and Sonnets to Ophelia1999Jake HeggieEdna St. Vincent MillaySongs to Poems of Edna St. Vincent Millay1994 · Songs to Poems of Edna St. Vincent MillayRichard Pearson ThomasEdna St. Vincent MillaySongfestLeonard BernsteinLawrence Ferlinghetti, Julia de Burgos, Walt Whitman, Conrad Aiken, Gregory Nunzio Corso, Edna St. Vincent MillaySonnet: What Lips My Lips Have Kissed…1977 · SongfestLeonard BernsteinEdna St. Vincent MillaySouvenir1995 · A Horse With WingsRicky Ian GordonEdna St. Vincent MillaySpring1999 · Songs and Sonnets to OpheliaJake HeggieEdna St. Vincent MillayThe Ballad of the Harp-Weaver1994 · Songs to Poems of Edna St. Vincent MillayRichard Pearson ThomasEdna St. Vincent MillayThe Betrothal1990 · Wasting the NightScott WheelerEdna St. Vincent MillayThe Buck in the Snow1990 · Huntsman, What Quarry?Simon SargonEdna St. Vincent MillayThe Return from Town1960 · Five Millay SongsH. Leslie AdamsEdna St. Vincent MillayThe Road to Avrillé1994 · Songs to Poems of Edna St. Vincent MillayRichard Pearson ThomasEdna St. Vincent MillayThe Spring and the Fall1995 · A Horse With WingsRicky Ian GordonEdna St. Vincent MillayTheme In Yellow1989Juliana HallRobert Frost, Amy Lowell, Edna St. Vincent Millay, Carl SandburgThursday1990 · Wasting the NightScott WheelerEdna St. Vincent MillayTime does not bring relief1990 · Wasting the NightScott WheelerEdna St. Vincent MillayTo a Young Poet1994 · Songs to Poems of Edna St. Vincent MillayRichard Pearson ThomasEdna St. Vincent MillayTo One Who Might Have Born a Message1994 · Songs to Poems of Edna St. Vincent MillayRichard Pearson ThomasEdna St. Vincent MillayWasting the Night1990Scott WheelerEdna St. Vincent MillayWhat lips my lips have kissed…1994 · Love is not all…Alva HendersonEdna St. Vincent MillayWhen we are old…1994 · Love is not all…Alva HendersonEdna St. Vincent MillayWild Swans1960 · Five Millay SongsH. Leslie AdamsEdna St. Vincent MillayWild Swans1935John Woods DukeEdna St. Vincent MillayWinter Windows1989Juliana HallWalter De la Mare, Robert Frost, Edna St. Vincent MillayWomen Have Loved Before1999 · Songs and Sonnets to OpheliaJake HeggieEdna St. Vincent MillayEven in the Moment1965 · Four SongsMargaret BondsEdna St. Vincent MillayFeast1965 · Four SongsMargaret BondsEdna St. Vincent MillayI Know My Mind1965 · Four SongsMargaret BondsEdna St. Vincent MillayWhat My Lips Have Kissed1965 · Four SongsMargaret BondsEdna St. Vincent MillayHyacinth2020 · Six Songs on Poems by Edna St. Vincent MillayMargaret BondsEdna St. Vincent Millay
Video
Sheet Music
A Horse With Wings
Ricky Ian Gordon
Once I Was
Sweet Song
Afternoon on a Hill
My Sister's New Red Hat
A Horse with Wings
Air
Poem (Lana Turner has Collapsed)
The Lake Isle of Innisfree
The Spring and the Fall
Souvenir
Coyotes
The Red Dress
What Shall We Remember?
Will There Really Be a Morning?
Sycamore Trees
Fewer Words
The Special Picnic
Janet Underneath the Roses
I am a Cherry Alive
An Old-Fashioned Song
White Haired Woman
Sweet Song
Afternoon on a Hill
My Sister's New Red Hat
A Horse with Wings
Air
Poem (Lana Turner has Collapsed)
The Lake Isle of Innisfree
The Spring and the Fall
Souvenir
Coyotes
The Red Dress
What Shall We Remember?
Will There Really Be a Morning?
Sycamore Trees
Fewer Words
The Special Picnic
Janet Underneath the Roses
I am a Cherry Alive
An Old-Fashioned Song
White Haired Woman
I Will Breathe a Mountain
William Bolcom
1. Pity Me Not Because the Light of Day
2. How To Swing Those Obbligatos Around
3. The Crazy Woman
4. Just Once Text: Anne Sexton
5. Never More Will The Wind
6. The Sage Text: Denise Levertov
7. O To Be a Dragon
8. The Bustle in a House
9. I Saw Eternity
10. Night Practice
11. The Fish
2. How To Swing Those Obbligatos Around
3. The Crazy Woman
4. Just Once Text: Anne Sexton
5. Never More Will The Wind
6. The Sage Text: Denise Levertov
7. O To Be a Dragon
8. The Bustle in a House
9. I Saw Eternity
10. Night Practice
11. The Fish
Songs to Poems of Edna St. Vincent Millay
Richard Pearson Thomas
Soprano
Songfest
Leonard Bernstein
1. The Pennycandystore Beyond The El
2. A Julia de Burgos
3. To What You Said
4. Music I Heard With You
5. Zizi's Lament
6. Sonnet: What Lips My Lips Have Kissed...
2. A Julia de Burgos
3. To What You Said
4. Music I Heard With You
5. Zizi's Lament
6. Sonnet: What Lips My Lips Have Kissed...
Wasting the Night
Scott Wheeler
1. Thursday 2. Recuerdo 3. I shall forget you 4. Time does not bring relief 5. The Betrothal
Soprano