I died for beauty, but was scarce
(1990)- Music by Leo Smit
- Text by Emily Dickinson
"I died for beauty, but was scarce" is the second song in Leo Smit's song cycle Beyond Circumference. Beyond Circumference is the fourth of Smit's six song cycles setting the poetry of Emily Dickinson.
For more information about Leo Smit's Emily Dickinson song cycles, please visit the pages for The Ecstatic Pilgrimage and Leo Smit.
For inquiries about Leo Smit and to obtain sheet music, please contact Nils Vigeland at nvigeland@optonline.net.
I died for beauty, but was scarce (poem 449)
by Emily Dickinson
I died for beauty, but was scarce
Adjusted in the tomb,
When one who died for truth was lain
In an adjoining room.
He questioned softly why I failed ?
"For beauty," I replied.
"And I for truth, — the two are one ;
We brethren are," he said.
And so, as kinsmen met a night,
We talked between the rooms,
Until the moss had reached our lips,
And covered up our names.
