Pity me not... (Edna St. Vincent Millay)

eden

She was the first woman to win the Pulitzer in literature (in the 40's I think)...
Shes my fave female poet.

~~~~~
Pity me not because the light of day
at close of day no longer walks the sky

Pity me not for beauties passed away
from field and thicket as the years go by

Pity me not the waning of the moon
nor that the ebbing tide goes out to sea

Nor that a mans desire is hushed so soon
and you no longer look with love on me

This I have known always :
Love is no more than the wide blossom
which the wind assails
Than the great tide that treads the shifting shore
strewing fresh wreckage gathered in the gales ...

Pity me that the heart is slow to learn
what the swift mind beholds at every turn.

~~~~~

grooveamatic

it's a good one, indeed...

eden

grooveamatic wrote:

it's a good one, indeed...

The part where she says love is like a great tide strewing fresh wreckage is one of the all time great "love gone bad" analogies me thinks (:

grooveamatic

eden wrote:

The part where she says love is like a great tide strewing fresh wreckage is one of the all time great "love gone bad" analogies me thinks (:

me agrees. it's got a good visual image that goes with it.

pearlmutt

"the courage that my mother had
went with her
and is with her still
rock quarried from granite . . ."


she's awesome! thanks for posting that.

Ms. Haiku

Let you not say of me when I am old,
In pretty worship of my withered hands
Forgetting who I am, and how the sands
Of such a life as mine run red and gold
Even to the ultimate sifting dust, "Behold,
Here walketh passionless age!"—for there expands
A curious superstition in these lands,
And by its leave some weightless tales are told.

In me no lenten wicks watch out the night;
I am the booth where Folly holds her fair;
Impious no less in ruin than in strength,
When I lie crumbled to the earth at length,
Let you not say, "Upon this reverend site
The righteous groaned and beat their breasts in prayer."



I have a book of her sonnets which are very good. I would recommend it.

eden

Thank you Bibliobella and Pearlmutt-
This is the first board where people have not only responded but done it enthusiastically to the poetry Ive posted.
Finally, some kindred cyber spirits. (:

Ms. Haiku

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,
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 no more.


A contrast to the fiesty protagonist of the Sonnet #9, eh?

pearlmutt

I love these spirits too. It makes going to other places almost painful. No, I'm telling a tale; it just makes coming here feel that much better!

(Bibliobella has greatgreatgreatgreat taste!)

eden

Bibliobella wrote:

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,
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 no more.


A contrast to the fiesty protagonist of the Sonnet #9, eh?

Thank you , I hadnt run across those and am intensely trying to interpret their exact nuance and meaning. She was such a beautiful mix of strenghth and frailty...my two fave traits in people.

eden

pearlmutt wrote:

I love these spirits too. It makes going to other places almost painful. No, I'm telling a tale; it just makes coming here feel that much better!

(Bibliobella has greatgreatgreatgreat taste!)

Well, it can be painful because for me to waste time on the net when theres so much else for me to do- I have to be able to justify it and on this board I always learn something I didnt know unlike others Ive been on.