poetry

ok, so mm has a soft spot for edna st, vincent millay..........i read this poem on line this morning, and was nearly brought to tears by its sadness.......

Poem: [What lips my lips have kissed] by Edna St. Vincent Millay, from The Selected Poetry of Edna St. Vincent Millay (Modern Library).

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 the winter stands the lonely tree,
Nor knows what birds have vanished one by one,
Yet knows its boughs more silent than before:
I cannot say what loves have come and gone;
I only know that summer sang in me
A little while, that in me sings so more

I can recall seeing a portrait of the poetess at the national portrait gallery in wash dc......which had a few brief lines of her verse as an epithet.........my candle burns at both ends...it cannot last the night...but ah, my friends, and oh, my foes, it makes a lovely light..................that really sums it all up for me......as a fitting description of what it means to be a working mother/business person in the ought-fours.......of course, millay was a bit more burning of her candle than i could ever desire to be....................