Quotes by Edna St. Vincent Millay

About Edna St. Vincent Millay:

Edna St. Vincent Millay was an American lyrical poet and playwright. She received the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 1923, the third woman to win the award for poetry, and was also known for her feminist activism. She used the pseudonym Nancy Boyd for her prose work. The poet Richard Wilbur asserted, "She wrote some of the best sonnets of the century."
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

Still must the poet as of old, In barren attic bleak and cold, Starve, freeze, and fashion verses to Such things as flowers and song and you; Still as of old his being give In Beauty's name, while she may live, Beauty that may not die as long As ther...

Edna St. Vincent Millay

Safe upon the solid rock the ugly houses stand: Come and see my shining palace built upon the sand!

Edna St. Vincent Millay

My candle burns at both ends; It will not last the night; But ah, my foes, and oh, my friends— It gives a lovely light!

Edna St. Vincent Millay

I know I am but summer to your heart, And not the full four seasons of the year; And you must welcome from another part Such noble moods as are not mine, my dear. No gracious weight of golden fruits to sell Have I, nor any wise and wintry thing; And ...

Edna St. Vincent Millay

I will come back to you, I swear I will; And you will know me still. I shall be only a little taller Than when I went.

Edna St. Vincent Millay

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

Edna St. Vincent Millay

The first rose on my rose-tree Budded, bloomed, and shattered, During sad days when to me Nothing mattered. Grief of grief has drained me clean; Still it seems a pity No one saw,—it must have been Very pretty.

Edna St. Vincent Millay

I know what my heart is like Since your love died: It is like a hollow ledge Holding a little pool Left there by the tide, A little tepid pool, Drying inward from the edge.

Edna St. Vincent Millay

And must I then, indeed, Pain, live with you all through my life?-sharing my fire, my bed, Sharing-oh, worst of all things!-the same head?- And, when I feed myself, feeding you too?

Edna St. Vincent Millay

We have to live like people in a web of knives, we mustn't reach out our hands or we get them gashed.

Edna St. Vincent Millay

You have perhaps heard some false reports On the subject of God. He is not dead; and he is not a fable. He is not mocked nor forgotten-- Successfully. God is a lion that comes in the night. God is a hawk gliding among the stars-- If all the stars and...

Edna St. Vincent Millay

I learned that ruling poor men's hands is nothing. Ruling men's money's a wedge in the world. But after I'd split it open a crack I looked in and saw the trick inside it, the filthy nothing, the fooled and rotten faces of rich and successful men.

Edna St. Vincent Millay

My heart is warm with the friends I make, And better friends I'll not be knowing, Yet there isn't a train I wouldn't take, No matter where it's going.

Edna St. Vincent Millay

The sky, I thought, is not so grand; I 'most could touch it with my hand! And reaching up my hand to try, I screamed to feel it touch the sky.

Edna St. Vincent Millay

Moon, that against the lintel of the west Your forehead lean until the gate be swung, Longing to leave the world and be at rest, Being worn with faring and no longer young, Do you recall at all the Carian hill Where worn with loving, loving late you ...

Edna St. Vincent Millay

Degraded bird, I give you back your eyes forever, ascend now whither you are tossed; Forsake this wrist, forsake this rhyme; Soar, eat ether, see what has never been seen; depart, be lost, But climb.

Edna St. Vincent Millay

Set the foot down with distrust on the crust of the world - it is thin.

Edna St. Vincent Millay

The young are so old, they are born with their fingers crossed.

Edna St. Vincent Millay

Beauty is whatever gives joy.

Edna St. Vincent Millay

Author Bio

  • NameEdna St. Vincent Millay
  • DescriptionAmerican poet
  • BornFebruary 22, 1892
  • DiedOctober 19, 1950
  • CountryUnited States Of America
  • ProfessionPlaywright; Poet; Writer; Librettist
  • AwardsPulitzer Prize For Poetry