Famous Edna Poems by Famous Poets

These are examples of famous Edna poems written by some of the greatest and most-well-known modern and classical poets. PoetrySoup is a great educational poetry resource of famous edna poems. These examples illustrate what a famous edna poem looks like and its form, scheme, or style (where appropriate).

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Sonnets 01: We Talk Of Taxes And I Call You Friend

by Edna St. Vincent Millay
 We talk of taxes, and I call you friend;
Well, such you are,—but well enough we know
How thick about us root, how rankly grow
Those subtle weeds no man has need to tend,
That flourish through neglect, and soon must send
Perfume too sweet upon us and overthrow
Our steady senses; how such matters go
We are aware, and how such matters end.
Yet shall be...Read more of this...

Rosemary

by Edna St. Vincent Millay
 For the sake of some things
That be now no more
I will strew rushes
On my chamber-floor,
I will plant bergamot
At my kitchen-door.

For the sake of dim things
That were once so plain
I will set a barrel
Out to catch the rain,
I will hang an iron pot
On an iron crane.

Many things be dead and gone
That were brave and gay;
For the sake of these things
I...Read more of this...

The Philosopher

by Edna St. Vincent Millay
 And what are you that, wanting you,
I should be kept awake
As many nights as there are days
With weeping for your sake?

And what are you that, missing you,
As many days as crawl
I should be listening to the wind
And looking at the wall?

I know a man that's a braver man
And twenty men as kind,
And what are you, that you should be
The...Read more of this...

I Know I Am But Summer To Your Heart

by Edna St. Vincent Millay
I know I am but summer to your heart,
And not the full four seasons of the year;
And you must welcome from another part
Such noble moods as are not mine, my dear.
No gracious weight of golden fruits to sell
Have I, nor any wise and wintry thing;
And I have loved you all too long and well
To carry still the high sweet breast...Read more of this...

Modern Declaration

by Edna St. Vincent Millay
 I, having loved ever since I was a child a few things, never having 
wavered
In these affections; never through shyness in the houses of the
rich or in the presence of clergymen having denied these
loves;
Never when worked upon by cynics like chiropractors having
grunted or clicked a vertebra to the discredit of those loves;
Never when anxious to land a job having...Read more of this...

The Return From Town

by Edna St. Vincent Millay
 As I sat down by Saddle Stream
 To bathe my dusty feet there,
A boy was standing on the bridge
 Any girl would meet there.

As I went over Woody Knob
 And dipped into the hollow,
A youth was coming up the hill
 Any maid would follow.

Then in I turned at my own gate,—
 And nothing to be sad for—
To such a...Read more of this...

Sonnets 02: Into The Golden Vessel Of Great Song

by Edna St. Vincent Millay
 Into the golden vessel of great song
Let us pour all our passion; breast to breast
Let other lovers lie, in love and rest;
Not we,—articulate, so, but with the tongue
Of all the world: the churning blood, the long
Shuddering quiet, the desperate hot palms pressed
Sharply together upon the escaping guest,
The common soul, unguarded, and grown strong.
Longing alone is singer to the lute;
Let...Read more of this...

Conscientious Objector

by Edna St. Vincent Millay
 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 the barn-floor.
He is in haste; he has business in Cuba,
business in the Balkans, many calls to make this morning.
But I will not hold the bridle
while he clinches the girth.
And he may mount...Read more of this...

Weeds

by Edna St. Vincent Millay
 White with daisies and red with sorrel
And empty, empty under the sky!—
Life is a quest and love a quarrel—
Here is a place for me to lie.

Daisies spring from damned seeds,
And this red fire that here I see
Is a worthless crop of crimson weeds,
Cursed by farmers thriftily.

But here, unhated for an hour,
The sorrel runs in ragged flame,
The daisy stands, a...Read more of this...

Travel

by Edna St. Vincent Millay
 I should like to rise and go 
Where the golden apples grow;-- 
Where below another sky 
Parrot islands anchored lie, 
And, watched by cockatoos and goats, 
Lonely Crusoes building boats;-- 
Where in sunshine reaching out 
Eastern cities, miles about, 
Are with mosque and minaret 
Among sandy gardens set, 
And the rich goods from near and far 
Hang for sale...Read more of this...

The Betrothal

by Edna St. Vincent Millay
 Oh, come, my lad, or go, my lad, 
And love me if you like. 
I shall not hear the door shut 
Nor the knocker strike. 

Oh, bring me gifts or beg me gifts, 
And wed me if you will. 
I'd make a man a good wife, 
Sensible and still. 

And why should I be cold, my lad, 
And why...Read more of this...

Oh Oh You Will Be Sorry

by Edna St. Vincent Millay
 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,
"What a big book for such a little head!"
Come, I will show you now my newest hat,
And you may watch me purse my mouth and prink!
Oh, I shall love you still, and all of...Read more of this...

I Shall Forget You Presently

by Edna St. Vincent Millay
 IV

I SHALL forget you presently, my dear,
So make the most of this, your little day, 
Your little month, your little half a year,
Ere I forget, or die, or move away,
And we are done forever; by and by
I shall forget you, as I said, but now,
If you entreat me with your loveliest lie
I will protest you with my favorite vow....Read more of this...

The Wood Road

by Edna St. Vincent Millay
 If I were to walk this way
Hand in hand with Grief,
I should mark that maple-spray
Coming into leaf.
I should note how the old burrs
Rot upon the ground.
Yes, though Grief should know me hers
While the world goes round,
It could not if truth be said
This was lost on me:
A rock-maple showing red,
Burrs beneath a tree....Read more of this...

The Spring And The Fall

by Edna St. Vincent Millay
 In the spring of the year, in the spring of the year, 
I walked the road beside my dear. 
The trees were black where the bark was wet. 
I see them yet, in the spring of the year. 
He broke me a bough of the blossoming peach 
That was out of the way and hard to reach. 

In the...Read more of this...

Eel-Grass

by Edna St. Vincent Millay
 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-shells that lie and bleach
At the tide-line, and the trace
Of higher tides along the beach:
Nothing in this place....Read more of this...

To S. M

by Edna St. Vincent Millay
 If he should lie a-dying

I AM not willing you should go 
Into the earth, where Helen went; 
She is awake by now, I know. 
Where Cleopatra's anklets rust 
You will not lie with my consent; 
And Sappho is a roving dust; 
Cressid could love again; Dido, 
Rotted in state, is restless still; 
You leave me much against my will....Read more of this...

Exiled

by Edna St. Vincent Millay
 Searching my heart for its true sorrow,
This is the thing I find to be:
That I am weary of words and people,
Sick of the city, wanting the sea;

Wanting the sticky, salty sweetness
Of the strong wind and shattered spray;
Wanting the loud sound and the soft sound
Of the big surf that breaks all day.

Always before about my dooryard,
Marking the reach of the...Read more of this...

The Leaf And The Tree

by Edna St. Vincent Millay
 When will you learn, myself, to be
a dying leaf on a living tree?
Budding, swelling, growing strong,
Wearing green, but not for long,
Drawing sustenance from air,
That other leaves, and you not there,
May bud, and at the autumn's call
Wearing russet, ready to fall?
Has not this trunk a deed to do
Unguessed by small and tremulous you?
Shall not these branches in the end
To wisdom...Read more of this...

The Bean-Stalk

by Edna St. Vincent Millay
 Ho, Giant! This is I!
I have built me a bean-stalk into your sky!
La,—but it's lovely, up so high!

This is how I came,—I put
Here my knee, there my foot,
Up and up, from shoot to shoot—
And the blessed bean-stalk thinning
Like the mischief all the time,
Till it took me rocking, spinning,
In a dizzy, sunny circle,
Making angles with the root,
Far and out above...Read more of this...

The Unexplorer

by Edna St. Vincent Millay
 There was a road ran past our house
Too lovely to explore.
I asked my mother once—she said
That if you followed where it led
It brought you to the milk-man's door.
(That's why I have not travelled more.)...Read more of this...

Doubt No More That Oberon

by Edna St. Vincent Millay
 Doubt no more that Oberon—
Never doubt that Pan
Lived, and played a reed, and ran
After nymphs in a dark forest,
In the merry, credulous days,—
Lived, and led a fairy band
Over the indulgent land!
Ah, for in this dourest, sorest
Age man's eye has looked upon,
Death to fauns and death to fays,
Still the dog-wood dares to raise—
Healthy tree, with trunk and root—
Ivory bowls that...Read more of this...

Witch-Wife

by Edna St. Vincent Millay
 She is neither pink nor pale,
 And she never will be all mine;
She learned her hands in a fairy-tale,
 And her mouth on a valentine.

She has more hair than she needs;
 In the sun 'tis a woe to me!
And her voice is a string of coloured beads,
 Or steps leading into the sea.

She loves me all that she can,...Read more of this...

The Prisoner

by Edna St. Vincent Millay
 ALL right,
Go ahead!
What's in a name?
I guess I'll be locked into
As much as I'm locked out of!...Read more of this...

Menses

by Edna St. Vincent Millay
 (He speaks, but to himself, being aware how it is with her)
Think not I have not heard.
Well-fanged the double word
And well-directed flew.

I felt it. Down my side
Innocent as oil I see the ugly venom slide:
Poison enough to stiffen us both, and all our friends;
But I am not pierced, so there the mischief ends.

There is more to be said: I...Read more of this...

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