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Sunday, December 27, 2015

POEM: EDNA ST. VINCENT MILLAY (EXCERPT)




WHAT LIPS MY LIPS HAVE KISSED,
AND WHERE, AND WHY

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


 

Upon the glass and listen for reply,

And in my heart, there stirs a quiet pain

For unremembered lads that not again

Will turn to me at midnight with a cry.


 

Thus in winter stands the lonely tree,

Not knows what birds have vanished one by one...


Edna St. Vincent Millay --- the first woman to win the Pulitzer
prize for poetry in 1923. This is one of her exemplary poems,
a sonnet full of lyric music and reflection.


Source: Strand and Boland. The Making of A Poem.
Labels: cynthia abegail-poems of Great Poets by george kurian

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