Edna St. Vincent Millay

15+ Must-Read Edna St. Vincent Millay Poems

(15 to start, 30+ to explore)

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.’

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Poem Explorer Poetry Archives

#1

Nationality: American

Themes: Love, Relationships

Topics:

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Kissing, Making Love, Suffering

Forms: Petrarchan Sonnet, Sonnet

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What My Lips Have Kissed, and Where, and Why

‘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.

This piece, also known as ‘Sonnet XLIII,’ is perhaps Millay’s best-known poem today. It is an Italian sonnet that is told from the perspective of a speaker who cannot remember the lovers of her past, only the happy state she must once have inhabited. The speaker describes what parts of her memory have been lost, “what” her lips have kissed, “why” they kissed, and “where” they kissed. With few specific details, Millay’s poem is widely relatable.

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

#2

Nationality: American

Themes: Desire, Relationships

Emotion: Sadness

Topics: Life, Life Lessons, Memory

Form:

Petrarchan Sonnet

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I, Being born a Woman and Distressed

‘I, Being born a Woman and Distressed’ by Edna St. Vincent Millay encourages women to walk away from emotionally turbulent relationships.

‘I, Being Born a Woman and Distressed’ is also known as Sonnet XLI. It is a Petrarchan or Italian sonnet. In the lines, Millay describes the emotional “frenzy” that relationships can evoke in women and how one may walk away unpossessed. The speaker concludes that she is too strong for a man to possess her and that she’s capable of being with any man and leaving him.

I, being born a woman and distressed

By all the needs and notions of my kind,

Am urged by your propinquity to find

Your person fair, and feel a certain zest

#3

Nationality: American

Theme: Journey

Emotion: Compassion

Topic: Travel

Form: Ballad

Genre: Lyric

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Tavern

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

This is a beautiful short poem that was originally published in Renascence and Other Poems in 1917. It is told from the perspective of a woman who is interested in opening an inn. Those she’s thinking about will stumble upon her tavern while on a journey. There, they could rest and recover while she tended to them.

I'll keep a little tavern

Below the high hill's crest,

Wherein all grey-eyed people

May set them down and rest.

#4

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Renascence

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

This piece was written when the poet was only nineteen years old. The first lines contain the speaker’s horror at the boundaries of her world. It is mundane, without interest, and confining. The weight of infinity presses down on her. In the end, she is reborn and is never going to forget God or stop from one moment seeing him in everything around her.

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.

#5

Nationality: American

Theme: Nature

Emotion:

88

Topics: Birds, Mind

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Wild Swans

‘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.

The poem begins with the speaker expressing shock at the sight of wild swans, the primary image of the poem. She leaves the poem, desperate for the swans to come back and show her again how to fly over the town.

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;

#6

Nationality: American

Themes: Death, Disappointment, Nature

Emotions: Disgust, Frustration, Hopelessness, Sadness

Topics: Change, Life, Mortality, Personification, Philosophical, Seasons, Spring

Form: Free Verse

Genre: Lyric

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Spring

‘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.

‘Spring’ by Edna St. Vincent Millay uses techniques like apostrophes within the lines. The speaker addresses Spring, asking the season why it has to come back again. It brings to mind nothing but negativity for the speaker. She thinks of death and change, even with the new life around her.

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.

#7

Nationality: American

Themes: Dark, Disappointment

Emotions:

87

Anxiety, Depression, Grief

Topics: Life Struggles, Sorrow, Suffering

Form: Sestet

Genre: Lyric

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Sorrow

‘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.

Millay’s ‘Sorrow’ is a deeply sad poem that explores the speaker’s depression. Millay may have written this poem based on her own experiences and feelings. It follows her wherever she goes. She has no reprieve from it, day or night, and nowhere to go that makes her feel as if there is a purpose to live x.

Sorrow like a ceaseless rain

Beats upon my heart.

People twist and scream in pain, —

Dawn will find them still again;

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Bluebeard

‘Bluebeard’ reimagines the classic tale, focusing on betrayal and the sanctity of personal space through a symbolically empty room.

‘Bluebeard’ retells the traditional story of a wife, the latest in a long line, who is married to Bluebeard. She finds a bloody mess and the remains of the previous wives behind a locked door. Once her husband arrives home, he plans to kill her, but she manages to escape. The poem rearranges the plot of the story focusing on the woman rather than on the man.

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

#9

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Afternoon on a Hill

‘Afternoon on a Hill’ by Millay is a serene nature poem that motivates self-reflection through appreciation of surroundings.

The speaker describes her intentions for the afternoon. The poem takes the reader into the future, where the speaker plans to spend time alone on a hill surrounded by hundreds of flowers. She’s not going to pick them, but she is going to touch them. At the end of the afternoon, when the sun has gone down, and she’s looking out over the lights of the town, she’ll pick out her home among them and head down to it.

I will be the gladdest thing

Under the sun!

I will touch a hundred flowers

And not pick one.

#10

Nationality: American

Emotions:

Missing Someone

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Topics:

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Heartbreak, Mountains, Sorrow

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Time does not bring relief; you all have lied

‘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’ is another example of a Petrarchan or Italian sonnet. It tells of an emotionally damaged woman seeking relief from heartbreak. She notes that time has not brought relief from the emotional pain she’s been feeling. Her longing for her lover is omnipresent. It comes to her in the rain and with tidal changes.

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;

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An Ancient Gesture

‘An Ancient Gesture’ explores timeless sorrow through parallels between modern tears and those of mythic figures Penelope and Ulysses.

The poem is a good representation of Edna St. Vincent Millay's poetry. Millay is known for her poignant exploration of human emotions, particularly themes of love, loss, and longing. This poem encapsulates these themes through its evocative imagery and introspective tone. Additionally, Millay often draws upon classical and mythological references in her work, as seen in this poem's allusions to Penelope and Ulysses.

I thought, as I wiped my eyes on the corner of my apron:

Penelope did this too.

And more than once: you can't keep weaving all day

And undoing it all through the night;

#12

A Dirge Without Music

‘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.

#13

Ashes of Life

‘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!

#14

Elegy Before Death

‘Elegy Before Death’ is a poem about the physical and spiritual impact of a loss and how it can and cannot change one’s world.

There will be rose and rhododendron

When you are dead and under ground;

Still will be heard from white syringas

Heavy with bees, a sunny sound;

#15

First Fig

‘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;

FAQs about Edna St. Vincent Millay

Usually, readers and scholars consider ‘Renascence’ to be Millay’s most famous poem. Other famous poems she wrote include ‘What My Lips Have Kissed, and Where and Why’ and ‘I, Being Born a Woman and Distressed.’

Millay wrote lyric poetry, including sonnets. Her poems often include images of natural scenes, moving emotional experiences, and even her personal struggles. She often wrote short poems as well, many of which are fourteen lines or shorter. But, her best-known poem, ‘Renascence,’ is quite long.

No, Edna St. Vincent Milly was born in 1892. The Romantic movement ended in the early 1800s. She is usually referred to as a lyric poet due to her poems’ subject matter and language.

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