Quick quotation question.

[randomness]

On August 5, 2010, Christopher Hitchens was interviewed by Anderson Cooper*. In that interview, he says of his drinking and smoking, "I rather enjoyed the feeling of burning the candle at both ends...[A]nd it gave a lovely light.”

I've seen his use of this particular phrase quoted by many in their obituaries. In very, very few places--five found by Google, just now--is the phrase attributed to Edna St. Vincent Millay.

"My candle burns at both ends
It will not last the night;
But ah, my foes, and oh, my friends -
It gives a lovely light."
- Edna St. Vincent Millay, "A Few Figs from Thistles"

It's a perfect quote for the situation, and I'm sure Hitchens knew who he was quoting.

Is this such a commonly known quote that everyone knows where it came from? Or has the "candle burning at both ends/giving a lovely light" simply become a common saying that everyone knows, so attribution is unnecessary? Or is it just that my Google-fu is awful?

(I'm a terrible judge of how common it is because my first serious girlfriend wrote her thesis on the works of Edna St. Vincent Millay.)

*First half of quote at 0:45, second half at 2:20. Transcript at: http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/1112/16/acd.01.html. Non-embeddable video at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zeiS7hYbb8c

Comments

[redbird]

I suspect it's the reverse: Millay is just obscure enough, and people lazy enough, that the obituary writers are assuming it's original with Hitchens and not even asking or looking around.

I suspect that it's also relevant that this is a man quoting a woman, rather than the other way around, or a man quoting another man's work.

[randomness]

You know, those possibilities had crossed my mind, but I didn't want to go straight to that conclusion so I thought I'd ask around.

I fear you may be right on both counts.

[lillibet.livejournal.com]

I think burning the candle at both ends has definitely become a common phrase--do you know if ESVM originated the image, or just expanded it? I would recognize it from the poem and I would guess that the people who would care who Christopher Hitchens is would, too, but that may be entirely my biases showing.

[r-ness.livejournal.com]

The Phrase Finder says the original phrase "the phrase derives from an earlier French version. Randle Cotgrave recorded it in A Dictionarie of the French and English Tongues, 1611".

But as far as I know she was the first who said that it gave a lovely light.

[rmd.livejournal.com]

I think of it as reasonably well known, but I may just be a literate nerd.

[chanaleh.livejournal.com]

Ditto this. :-)

[chaiya.livejournal.com]

Thirded. I love the phrasing, always have.

[marith.livejournal.com]

Dunno! I know the poem, but I have also seen "burning the candle at both ends" used in several books without reference to it. So it wouldn't surprise me if many people recognize the phrase without knowing the source.

[marith.livejournal.com]

(ah, I see your comment. So that part of the couplet does predate.)

[cerebralpaladin.livejournal.com]

I had no familiarity with the "it gives a lovely light" component of this before this post. I certainly didn't know that it was from ESVM, but I also wouldn't have put it in "common saying that everyone knows."

(Personally, I'd put Hitchens use in the routine plagiarism of everyday life. :) )

[r-ness.livejournal.com]

Personally, I'd put Hitchens use in the routine plagiarism of everyday life. :)

My guess is he knew quite well who he was quoting and was at turns amused that people assumed it was his and dismayed that no one else picked up where it was actually from.

[amarysta.livejournal.com]

I know both the poem and the phrase.
When someone says "burning the candle at both ends," I don't think the poem is necessarily invoked, but with the light part, it definitely is (at least for me)...

[bloodstones.livejournal.com]

Ditto this. My mom is a big St. Vincent Millay fan, so I've known this poem since early childhood, and so I also have no sense of how well known it actually is.

[allyphoe.livejournal.com]

I think you've got too much Hitchens in your Google history, since Google results are skewed by the history.

I search for: burning the candle at both ends lovely light
and of the first 5 results, 4 are ESVM and one is Hitchens (4th place).

I'd have also been able to attribute it to her without Google, though.

[allessindra.livejournal.com]

Is that like having too much peanut butter in his chocolate?

[contrariety.livejournal.com]

Per posters above, I suspect that people quoting Hitchens quoting it have no idea that it wasn't just his own riff on the common saying. Most educated people know who Millay is, but I don't think most people have read a lot of her stuff. :\ (I really like her.)

[stolen-tea.livejournal.com]

I know the poem, but couldn't place the author without google. I would assume anybody using the phrase is referencing the poem, even if they were not aware of doing so. (Such as someone using a Shakespearean phrase without knowing its origin. Or more cringeworthily, somone talking about needing a "final solution" for some quotidian problem.)

[allessindra.livejournal.com]

I'm not into poetry, and while I know the name of ESVM, I'd no clue about this. If I heard someoen say 'and it gives a lovely light' i'd take it as a further riff on the concept without worrying over where it came from, as people I know come up with such things on their own.

In fact, it's completely possible that someone *would* come up with that further phrase on their own, with no reference to ESVM. It's not like it's an unlikely thing to add.

[achinhibitor.livejournal.com]

Certainly the concept of "burning the candle at both ends" has been common for a long time. As for "everyone knows where it came from", most people don't know where anything comes from and don't really care.