1965

What My Lips Have Kissed

Composed by Margaret Bonds

Four Songs Song Collection

"What My Lips Have Kissed" is an art song composed by Margaret Bonds with text derived from a poem by Edna St Vincent Millay. The song is part of Bonds' song cycle, Four Songs.

Audio

“What lips my lips have kissed” (from “Four Songs”)
Leberta Lorál, soprano; Jeffrey Sykes, piano2:58

Margaret Bonds

Composer

Edna St. Vincent Millay

Poet(s)/Writer(s)

2022

Date

University of California, Irvine, Winifred Smith Hall

Location

This recording was part of a 5:30pm concert ("A Salute to Margaret Bonds (1913-1972)") on Saturday, October 15, 2022 during the 25th Anniversary African American Art Song Alliance Conference. The concert venue was Winifred Smith Hall at the University of California, Irvine.

Text

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 winter stands the lonely tree,
Nor knows what birds have vanished one by one,
Yet knows 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.

Records

2024

Show Me the Way

Jasmine Barnes, Amy Marcy Beach, Margaret Bonds, Libby Larsen, Florence Price

Buy via Cedille Records