Poems

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Edna St. Vincent Millay
Edna St. Vincent Millay

Interim

Interim


The room is full of you!—As I came in
And closed the door behind me, all at once
A something in the air, intangible,
Yet stiff …

424
Edna St. Vincent Millay
Edna St. Vincent Millay

Journey

Journey


Ah, could I lay me down in this long grass
And close my eyes, and let the quiet wind
Blow over me—I am so tired, so tired
Of pa…

459
Edna St. Vincent Millay
Edna St. Vincent Millay

Inland

Inland


People that build their houses inland,
People that buy a plot of ground
Shaped like a house, and build a house there,
Far from the sea…

289
Edna St. Vincent Millay
Edna St. Vincent Millay

If Still Your Orchards Bear

If Still Your Orchards Bear

Brother, that breathe the August air
Ten thousand years from now,
And smell—if still your orchards bear
Tart appl…

335
Edna St. Vincent Millay
Edna St. Vincent Millay

I, Being Born a Woman and Distressed

I, Being Born a Woman and Distressed

I, being born a woman and distressed
By all the needs and notions of my kind,
Am urged by your propinquity to find <…

318
Edna St. Vincent Millay
Edna St. Vincent Millay

I Know The Face Of Falsehood And Her Tongue

I Know The Face Of Falsehood And Her Tongue

I know the face of Falsehood and her Tongue
Honeyed with unction, Plausible with guile,
Are dear to men, whom…

271
Edna St. Vincent Millay
Edna St. Vincent Millay

Humoresque

Humoresque

"Heaven bless the babe!" they said.
"What queer books she must have read!"
(Love, by whom I was beguiled,
Grant I may not bear a child.)…

358
Edna St. Vincent Millay
Edna St. Vincent Millay

I Dreamed I Moved Among The Elysian Fields

I Dreamed I Moved Among The Elysian Fields

I dreamed I moved among the Elysian fields,
In converse with sweet women long since dead;
And out of blossoms …

413
Edna St. Vincent Millay
Edna St. Vincent Millay

Grown-up

Grown-up

Was it for this I uttered prayers,
And sobbed and cursed and kicked the stairs,
That now, domestic as a plate,
I should retire at half-pas…

346
Edna St. Vincent Millay
Edna St. Vincent Millay

Fontaine, Je Ne Boirai Pas De Ton Eau!

Fontaine, Je Ne Boirai Pas De Ton Eau!

I know I might have lived in such a way

As to have suffered only pain:

Loving not man nor dog;
<…

310
Edna St. Vincent Millay
Edna St. Vincent Millay

Euclid Alone

Euclid Alone

Euclid alone has looked on Beauty bare.
Let all who prate of Beauty hold their peace,
And lay them prone upon the earth and cease
To p…

314
Edna St. Vincent Millay
Edna St. Vincent Millay

Feast

Feast


I drank at every vine.
The last was like the first.
I came upon no wine
So wonderful as thirst.


I gnawed at every roo…

296
Edna St. Vincent Millay
Edna St. Vincent Millay

Elegy Before Death

Elegy Before Death

There will be rose and rhododendron
When you are dead and under ground;
Still will be heard from white syringas
Heavy with bees,…

267
Edna St. Vincent Millay
Edna St. Vincent Millay

Eel-Grass

Eel-Grass


No matter what I say,
All that I really love
Is the rain that flattens on the bay,
And the eel-grass in the cove;
The jingle-…

491
Edna St. Vincent Millay
Edna St. Vincent Millay

Dirge

Dirge


Boys and girls that held her dear,
Do your weeping now;
All you loved of her lies here.


Brought to earth the arrogant brow,…

282
Edna St. Vincent Millay
Edna St. Vincent Millay

Doubt No More That Oberon

Doubt No More That Oberon

Doubt no more that Oberon—
Never doubt that Pan
Lived, and played a reed, and ran
After nymphs in a dark forest,

304
Edna St. Vincent Millay
Edna St. Vincent Millay

Conscientious Objector

Conscientious Objector

I shall die, but
that is all that I shall do for Death.
I hear him leading his horse out of the stall;
I hear the clatter on…

328
Edna St. Vincent Millay
Edna St. Vincent Millay

Daphne

Daphne


Why do you follow me?—
Any moment I can be
Nothing but a laurel-tree.


Any moment of the chase
I can leave you …

346
Edna St. Vincent Millay
Edna St. Vincent Millay

Chorus

Chorus


Give away her gowns,
Give away her shoes;
She has no more use
For her fragrant gowns;
Take them all down,
Blue, green, blu…

332
Edna St. Vincent Millay
Edna St. Vincent Millay

Bluebeard

Bluebeard


This door you might not open, and you did;
So enter now, and see for what slight thing
You are betrayed... Here is no treasure hid,

344
Edna St. Vincent Millay
Edna St. Vincent Millay

Being Young And Green

Being Young And Green

Being Young and Green, I said in love's despite:
Never in the world will I to living wight
Give over, air my mind
To anyone, …

304
Edna St. Vincent Millay
Edna St. Vincent Millay

Assault

Assault


I

I had forgotten how the frogs must sound
After a year of silence, else I think
I should not so have ventured forth alone

381
Edna St. Vincent Millay
Edna St. Vincent Millay

Apostrophe To Man

Apostrophe To Man

(On reflecting that the world
is ready to go to war again)

Detestable race, continue to expunge yourself, die out.
Breed fa…

415
Edna St. Vincent Millay
Edna St. Vincent Millay

And do you think that love itself

And do you think that love itself

And do you think that love itself,
Living in such an ugly house,
Can prosper long?

We meet and part;

346