Edna St. Vincent Millay

Edna St. Vincent Millay Poems

Edna St. Vincent Millay was an American lyric poet whose work is incredibly popular. She is remembered for her highly moving and image-rich poems that spoke on subjects close to the hearts of many readers.

She won the Pulitzer Prize for Best Volume of Verse in 1922. Her most famous poem is ‘Renascence.’ Read more about Edna St. Vincent Millay.

A Dirge Without Music

by Edna St. Vincent Millay

‘A Dirge Without Music’ by Edna St. Vincent Millay is a beautiful dirge. The poet uses clear and lyrical language to describe how lovers and thinkers alike go into the darkness of death with a little remaining.

I am not resigned to the shutting away of loving hearts in the hard ground.

So it is, and so it will be, for so it has been, time out of mind:

Into the darkness they go, the wise and the lovely.  Crowned

With lilies and with laurel they go; but I am not resigned.

Ashes of Life

by Edna St. Vincent Millay

‘Ashes of Life’ tells of a speaker who has lost all touch with her own ambitions and is stuck within the monotonous rut of everyday life.

Love has gone and left me and the days are all alike;

   Eat I must, and sleep I will,—and would that night were here!

But ah!—to lie awake and hear the slow hours strike!

   Would that it were day again!—with twilight near!

Bluebeard

by Edna St. Vincent Millay

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,

No cauldron, no clear crystal mirroring

First Fig

by Edna St. Vincent Millay

‘First Fig’ by Edna St. Vincent Millay is a well-loved and often discussed poem. In it, readers can explore a symbolic depiction of sexuality and freedom.

My candle burns at both ends;

    It will not last the night;

Journey

by Edna St. Vincent Millay

Journey’ by Edna St. Vincent Millay describes a speaker’s desire to live a life experienced on an open path, and filled with natural wonder. 

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 passing pleasant places! All my life,

Explore more poems from Edna St. Vincent Millay

Love is Not All

by Edna St. Vincent Millay

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 rise and sink and rise and sink again;

Oh, oh, you will be sorry for that word!

by Edna St. Vincent Millay

‘Oh, oh, you will be sorry for that word!’ by Edna St. Vincent Millay is a powerful poem about a woman’s decision to assert her independence.

Oh, oh, you will be sorry for that word!

Give back my book and take my kiss instead.

Was it my enemy or my friend I heard,

“What a big book for such a little head!”

Ragged Island

by Edna St. Vincent Millay

‘Ragged Island’ by Edna St. Vincent Millay is a personal poem about Millay’s days spent on Ragged Island off the coast of Maine. It explores the peace of mind the place was able to bring out in her. 

There, there where those black spruces crowd

To the edge of the precipitous cliff,

Above your boat, under the eastern wall of the island;

And no wave breaks; as if

Recuerdo

by Edna St. Vincent Millay

‘Recuerdo’ by Edna St. Vincent Millay tells of a night the speaker spent sailing back and forth on a ferry, eating fruit and watching the sky.

We were very tired, we were very merry—

We had gone back and forth all night on the ferry.

It was bare and bright, and smelled like a stable—

But we looked into a fire, we leaned across a table,

Renascence

by Edna St. Vincent Millay

Edna St. Vincent Millay’s ‘Renascence’ is a moving poem. The poet explores themes of suffering, time, rebirth, and spirituality. 

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 a bay.

Sorrow

by Edna St. Vincent Millay

‘Sorrow’ by Edna St. Vincent Millay is a lyric poem written about a speaker’s depression. The short piece is filled with evocative depictions of what feeling all-encompassing sorrow is like. 

Sorrow like a ceaseless rain

Beats upon my heart.

People twist and scream in pain, —

Dawn will find them still again;

Spring

by Edna St. Vincent Millay

‘Spring’ by Edna St. Vincent Millay is an interesting poem that takes an original view on spring. It criticizes the season and all it brings with it.

To what purpose, April, do you return again?

Beauty is not enough.

You can no longer quiet me with the redness

Of little leaves opening stickily.

Still will I harvest beauty where it grows

by Edna St. Vincent Millay

‘Still will I harvest beauty where it grows’ is a lovely poem in which readers are asked to appreciate the world on a deeper level. 

Still will I harvest beauty where it grows:

In coloured fungus and the spotted fog

Surprised on foods forgotten; in ditch and bog

Filmed brilliant with irregular rainbows

Tavern

by Edna St. Vincent Millay

‘Tavern’ by Edna St. Vincent Millay is a beautiful, short poem that speaks to one person’s desire to take care of others. 

I'll keep a little tavern

   Below the high hill's crest,

Wherein all grey-eyed people

   May set them down and rest.

The Ballad of the Harp-Weaver

by Edna St. Vincent Millay

‘The Ballad of the Harp-Weaver’ by Edna St. Vincent Millay depicts the lengths mothers will go to in order to protect their children. The speaker recalls watching his mother sacrifice herself for him when he was a young boy, weaving an enormous pile of clothing with a harp. 

“Son,” said my mother,

When I was knee-high,

“You’ve need of clothes to cover you,

And not a rag have I.

The Buck in the Snow

by Edna St. Vincent Millay

‘The Buck in the Snow’ by Edna St. Vincent Millay describes the power of death to cross all boundaries and inflict loss on even the most peaceful of times. 

White sky, over the hemlocks bowed with snow,

Saw you not at the beginning of evening the antlered buck and his doe

Standing in the apple-orchard? I saw them. I saw them suddenly go,

Tails up, with long leaps lovely and slow,

The Fawn

by Edna St. Vincent Millay

I would have given more than I care to say

To thrifty ears, might I have had him for my friend

One moment only of that forest day:

The Penitent

by Edna St. Vincent Millay

‘The Penitent’ by Edna St. Vincent Millay describes the internal turmoil of a narrator who wants to feel sorrow for a sin she has committed. 

I had a little Sorrow,

   Born of a little Sin,

I found a room all damp with gloom

   And shut us all within;

Time does not bring relief; you all have lied

by Edna St. Vincent Millay

‘Time does not bring relief; you all have lied’ by Edna St. Vincent Millay tells of an emotionally damaged woman, seeking relief from heartbreak. 

Time does not bring relief; you all have lied

Who told me time would ease me of my pain!

I miss him in the weeping of the rain;

I want him at the shrinking of the tide;

Travel

by Edna St. Vincent Millay

‘Travel’ by Edna St. Vincent Millay speaks of one narrator’s unquenchable longing for the opportunity to escape from her everyday life. 

The railroad track is miles away,

    And the day is loud with voices speaking,

Yet there isn't a train goes by all day

    But I hear its whistle shrieking.

What My Lips Have Kissed, and Where, and Why

by Edna St. Vincent Millay

‘What My Lips Have Kissed, and Where, and Why’ is an Italian sonnet about being unable to recall what made one happy in the past.

What lips my lips have kissed, and where, and why,

I have forgotten, and what arms have lain

Under my head till morning; but the rain

Is full of ghosts tonight, that tap and sigh

Wild Swans

by Edna St. Vincent Millay

‘Wild Swans’ by Edna St. Vincent Millay tells of a speaker’s desperation to get out of her current physical and emotional space and find a bird-like freedom. 

I looked in my heart while the wild swans went over.

And what did I see I had not seen before?

Only a question less or a question more;

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