Quotations by:
    Millay, Edna St. Vincent


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 (1892-1950) American poet
“Figs from Thistles: First Fig” in Poetry: A Magazine of Verse (Jun 1918)
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Added on 1-Feb-04 | Last updated 27-Oct-21
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I think our heart-strings were, like warp and woof
In some firm fabric, woven in and out;
Your golden filaments in fair design
Across my duller fibre.

Edna St. Vincent Millay (1892-1950) American poet
“Interim,” Renascence and Other Poems (1917)
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Added on 10-Nov-17 | Last updated 28-Mar-24
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Life in itself
Is nothing,
An empty cup, a flight of uncarpeted stairs.

Edna St. Vincent Millay (1892-1950) American poet
“Spring,” ll. 13-15, Second April (1921)
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Added on 28-Feb-24 | Last updated 28-Feb-24
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So up I got in anger,
And took a book I had,
And put a ribbon on my hair
To please a passing lad.
And, “One thing there’s no getting by —
I’ve been a wicked girl.” said I;
“But if I can’t be sorry, why,
I might as well be glad!”

Edna St. Vincent Millay (1892-1950) American poet
“The Penitent”, st. 3, A Few Figs from Thistles (1921)
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Added on 29-Feb-24 | Last updated 29-Feb-24
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I turn away reluctant from your light,
And stand irresolute, a mind undone,
A silly, dazzled thing deprived of sight
From having looked too long upon the sun.

Edna St. Vincent Millay (1892-1950) American poet
“When I too long have looked upon your face,” ll. 5-8, Second April, Sonnet 7 (1921)
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Added on 13-Dec-23 | Last updated 13-Dec-23
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It’s not true that life is one damn thing after another; it is one damn thing over and over.

Edna St. Vincent Millay (1892-1950) American poet
(Attributed)
 
Added on 1-Feb-04 | Last updated 1-Feb-04
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A person who publishes a book appears willfully in public with his pants down.

Edna St. Vincent Millay (1892-1950) American poet
(Attributed)
 
Added on 3-Sep-13 | Last updated 3-Sep-13
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Where you used to be, there is a hole in the world, which I find myself constantly walking around in the day-time, and falling into at night.

Edna St. Vincent Millay (1892-1950) American poet
Letter to Whitter “Hal” Bynner and Arthur Davidson Ficke (1920)
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Added on 10-Oct-17 | Last updated 10-Oct-17
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Time does not bring relief; you all have lied
Who told me time would ease me of my pain!
I miss him in the weeping of the rain;
I want him at the shrinking of the tide;
The old snows melt from every mountain-side,
And last year’s leaves are smoke in every lane;
But last year’s bitter loving must remain
Heaped on my heart, and my old thoughts abide!
There are a hundred places where I fear
To go, — so with his memory they brim!
And entering with relief some quiet place
Where never fell his foot or shone his face
I say, “There is no memory of him here!”
And so stand stricken, so remembering him!

Edna St. Vincent Millay (1892-1950) American poet
Sonnet 2: “Time does not bring relief,” Renascence: and Other Poems (1917)
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The sonnets were not originally numbered, nor did they include titles. Later collections with this poem reduced the number of exclamation points (e.g.).
 
Added on 26-Feb-15 | Last updated 1-Feb-24
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