Poems

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Edna St. Vincent Millay
Edna St. Vincent Millay

Sonnet V: If I should learn

Sonnet V: If I should learn

If I should learn, in some quite casual way,
That you were gone, not to return again--
Read from the back-page of a paper, say…

309
Edna St. Vincent Millay
Edna St. Vincent Millay

Sonnets (1923)

Sonnets (1923)

VIII8.
Oh, oh, you will be sorry for that word!
.
Give back my book and take my kiss instead.
.
Was it my enemy or my fr…

366
Edna St. Vincent Millay
Edna St. Vincent Millay

Sonnet I: Thou art not lovelier than lilacs

Sonnet I: Thou art not lovelier than lilacs

Thou art not lovelier than lilacs,--no,
Nor honeysuckle; thou art not more fair
Than small white single poppi…

297
Edna St. Vincent Millay
Edna St. Vincent Millay

Sonnet III: Mindful of you the sodden earth

Sonnet III: Mindful of you the sodden earth

Mindful of you the sodden earth in spring,
And all the flowers that in the springtime grow,
And dusty roads, …

284
Edna St. Vincent Millay
Edna St. Vincent Millay

Sonnet 03: Mindful Of You The Sodden Earth In Spring

Sonnet 03: Mindful Of You The Sodden Earth In Spring

Mindful of you the sodden earth in spring,
And all the flowers that in the springtime grow,
And dust…

299
Edna St. Vincent Millay
Edna St. Vincent Millay

Sonnet 05: If I Should Learn, In Some Quite Casual Way

Sonnet 05: If I Should Learn, In Some Quite Casual Way

If I should learn, in some quite casual way,
That you were gone, not to return again—
Read f…

243
Edna St. Vincent Millay
Edna St. Vincent Millay

Song Of A Second April

Song Of A Second April

April this year, not otherwise
Than April of a year ago,
Is full of whispers, full of sighs,
Of dazzling mud and dingy snow;…

347
Edna St. Vincent Millay
Edna St. Vincent Millay

Sonnet 01: Thou Art Not Lovelier Than Lilacs,—No

Sonnet 01: Thou Art Not Lovelier Than Lilacs,—No

Thou art not lovelier than lilacs,—no,
Nor honeysuckle; thou art not more fair
Than small wh…

279
Edna St. Vincent Millay
Edna St. Vincent Millay

Scrub

Scrub


If I grow bitterly,
Like a gnarled and stunted tree,
Bearing harshly of my youth
Puckered fruit that sears the mouth;
If I make o…

401
Edna St. Vincent Millay
Edna St. Vincent Millay

Renascence

Renascence


All I could see from where I stood
Was three long mountains and a wood;
I turned and looked another way,
And saw three islands in …

392
Edna St. Vincent Millay
Edna St. Vincent Millay

Prayer To Persephone

Prayer To Persephone

Be to her, Persephone,
All the things I might not be:
Take her head upon your knee.
She that was so proud and wild,
Flip…

391
Edna St. Vincent Millay
Edna St. Vincent Millay

Pity Me Not Because The Light Of Day

Pity Me Not Because The Light Of Day

Pity me not because the light of day
At close of day no longer walks the sky;
Pity me not for beauties passed away <…

307
Edna St. Vincent Millay
Edna St. Vincent Millay

Oh, Oh, You Will Be Sorry

Oh, Oh, You Will Be Sorry

Oh, oh, you will be sorry for that word!
Give me back my book and take my kiss instead.
Was it my enemy or my friend I heard, <…

382
Edna St. Vincent Millay
Edna St. Vincent Millay

Passer Mortuus Est

Passer Mortuus Est

Death devours all lovely things;
Lesbia with her sparrow
Shares the darkness,—presently
Every bed is narrow.

<…

394
Edna St. Vincent Millay
Edna St. Vincent Millay

Ode To Silence

Ode To Silence

Aye, but she?
Your other sister and my other soul
Grave Silence, lovelier
Than the three loveliest maidens, what of her?
Clio,…

347
Edna St. Vincent Millay
Edna St. Vincent Millay

Not Even My Pride Shall Suffer Much

Not Even My Pride Shall Suffer Much

Not even my pride shall suffer much;
Not even my pride at all, maybe,
If this ill-timed, intemperate clutch
Be …

301
Edna St. Vincent Millay
Edna St. Vincent Millay

Night Is My Sister, And How Deep In Love

Night Is My Sister, And How Deep In Love

Night is my sister, and how deep in love,
How drowned in love and weedily washed ashore,
There to be fretted by …

362
Edna St. Vincent Millay
Edna St. Vincent Millay

Modern Declaration

Modern Declaration

I, having loved ever since I was a child a few things, never having
wavered
In these affections; never through shyness in the houses o…

403
Edna St. Vincent Millay
Edna St. Vincent Millay

Memorial To D.C.

Memorial To D.C.

(Vassar College, 1918)

O, loveliest throat of all sweet throats,
Where now no more the music is,
With hands that wrote you l…

348
Edna St. Vincent Millay
Edna St. Vincent Millay

Midnight Oil

Midnight Oil

Cut if you will, with Sleep's dull knife,
Each day to half its length, my friend,—
The years that Time take off my life,
He'll t…

418
Edna St. Vincent Millay
Edna St. Vincent Millay

Love Is Not All

Love Is Not All

Love is not all: it is not meat nor drink
Nor slumber nor a roof against the rain;
Nor yet a floating spar to men that sink
And ris…

374
Edna St. Vincent Millay
Edna St. Vincent Millay

Make Bright The Arrows

Make Bright The Arrows

Make bright the arrows
Gather the shields:
Conquest narrows
The peaceful fields.


Stock well the quiver

345
Edna St. Vincent Millay
Edna St. Vincent Millay

Lines for a Grave-Stone

Lines for a Grave-Stone

Man alive, that mournst thy lot,
Desiring what thou hast not got,
Money, beauty, love, what not;


Deeming it ble…

286
Edna St. Vincent Millay
Edna St. Vincent Millay

Kin To Sorrow

Kin To Sorrow

Am I kin to Sorrow,
That so oft
Falls the knocker of my door——
Neither loud nor soft,
But as long accustomed,

304