How can anyone pick just one Millay sonnet? By a process of jabbing my finger randomly at a list I present:

Admetus, From My Marrow's Core
Edna St Vincent Millay

Admetus, from my marrow's core I do
Despise you: wherefrom pity not your wife,
Who, having seen expire her love for you
With heaviest grief, today gives up her life.
You could not with your mind imagine this:
One might surrender, yet continue proud.
Not having loved, you do not know: the kiss
You sadly beg, is impious, not allowed.
Of all I loved, - how many girls and men
Have loved me in return? – speak! – young or old –
Speak! – sleek or famished, can you find me then
One form would flank me, as this night grows cold?
I am at peace, Admetus – go and slake
Your grief with wine. I die for my own sake.

Showing the power of poetry, I read the other day an entire essay on the virtues of Admetus (Anne Pippin Burnett on Euripides' Alcestis) and it quite failed to overwhelm the memory of a 14 line poem; I remain convinced at heart this is the One True Interpretation of the story.

And, because I am going to cheat about picking just one, a cut tag. )
Tags:
.

Profile

quillori: Photo of an Intha fisherman on Lake Inle, Burma (Default)
quillori

Most Popular Tags

Powered by Dreamwidth Studios

Style Credit

Expand Cut Tags

No cut tags