1990
Insomnia
Composed by
Lee Hoiby
Lee Hoiby Text by
Elizabeth Bishop
Elizabeth Bishop Three Ages of Woman Song Collection
"Insomnia" is the third song of Lee Hoiby's Three Ages of Woman, which sets three poems of Elizabeth Bishop.
Text
Insomnia
by Elizabeth Bishop
The moon in the bureau mirror
looks out a million miles
(and perhaps with pride, at herself,
but she never, never smiles)
far and away beyond sleep, or
perhaps she’s a daytime sleeper.
By the Universe deserted,
she’d tell it to go to hell,
and she’d find a body of water,
or a mirror, on which to dwell.
So wrap up care in a cobweb
and drop it down the well
into that world inverted
where left is always right,
where the shadows are really the body,
where we stay awake all night,
where the heavens are shallow as the sea
is now deep, and you love me.
Sheet Music