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Butterflies are white and blue

In this field we wander through.

Suffer me to take your hand.

Death comes in a day or two.

All the things we ever knew

Will be ashes in that hour,

Mark the transient butterfly,

How he hangs upon the flower.

Suffer me to take your hand.

Suffer me to cherish you

Till the dawn is in the sky.

Whether I be false or true,

Death comes in a day or two.

- Edna St. Vincent Millay (1892—1950), Mariposa

Program Note

Edna St. Vincent Millay was an American poet who was active during the Roaring Twenties and beyond. Lauded by literary critic Edmund Wilson as "one of the only poets writing in English in our time who have attained to anything like the stature of great literary figures.'', she was the first woman and second person to win the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry. However, as times and styles changed, she fell out of fashion and is less remembered today. 

“Mariposa”, published at the height of Millay’s fame in 1921, ironically contains themes relating to the fleeting, temporary nature of our life and experiences. “Death comes in a day or two.”, but not in a foreboding or negative way. If anything, the narrator is more concerned with you “suffering to take [their] hand”, to appreciate and cherish the fleeting moments of beauty before they fade away. 

- Edmund Bascon

Mariposa was premiered by members of Ensemble Dal Niente at University of the Pacific's Recital Hall on November 10, 2025.

Soprano - Amanda DeBoer Bartlett

Flute - Constance Volk

Harp - Ben Melsky

Bass - Kathryn Schulmeister