Edna St. Vincent Millay 57 Years Dead

Edna St. Vincent Millay

February 22, 1892 - October 19, 1950

RIP

Edna St. Vincent Millay was an American lyrical poet and playwright and the first woman to receive the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry. She was also known for her unconventional, bohemian lifestyle and her many love affairs with men and women. Her biography and some samples of her poetry appear in the Poe Forward Modern Poetry section.

Poe Forward's Edna St. Vincent Millay - biography page

Poe Forward's Edna St. Vincent Millay - poetry page

ELEGY BEFORE DEATH

Edna St. Vincent Millay

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;
Still will the tamaracks be raining
After the rain has ceased, and still
Will there be robins in the stubble,
Brown sheep upon the warm green hill.
Spring will not ail nor autumn falter;
Nothing will know that you are gone,
Saving alone some sullen plough-land
None but yourself sets foot upon;
Saving the may-weed and the pig-weed
Nothing will know that you are dead,--
These, and perhaps a useless wagon
Standing beside some tumbled shed.
Oh, there will pass with your great passing
Little of beauty not your own,--
Only the light from common water,
Only the grace from simple stone!