Oh, think not I am faithful to a vow!

Oh, think not I am faithful to a vow!
Faithless am I save to love's self alone.
Were you not lovely I would leave you now:
After the feet of beauty fly my own.
Were you not still my hunger's rarest food,
And water ever to my wildest thirst,
I would desert you -- think not but I would! --
And seek another as I sought you first.
But you are mobile as the veering air,
And all your charms more changeful than the tide,
Wherefore to be inconstant is no care:
I have but to continue at your side.
So wanton, light and false, my love, are you,
I am most faithless when I most am true.

Authorship

by Edna St. Vincent Millay (1892-1950) , no title, from A Few Figs from Thistles, published 1920

Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive)

by Jay Poûhe (1935-) , "Oh, think not I am faithful to a vow!", published 1971 [medium voice and piano], from The Amorous Line, no. 5.

Text added to the website: 2008-06-03.

Notes about green, red, and white dots

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