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Edna St. Vincent Millay (22 February 1892 – 19 October 1950 / Rockland / Maine / United States)
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Edna St. Vincent Millay was an American lyrical poet, playwright and feminist. She received the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry, and was known for her activism and her many love affairs. She used the pseudonym Nancy Boyd for her prose work.
Early Life
Millay was born in Rockland, Maine to Cora Lounella, a nurse, and Henry Tollman Millay, a schoolteacher who would later become superintendent of schools. Her middle name derives from St. Vincent's Hospital in New York, where her uncle's life had been saved just before her birth. The family's house was "between the mountains and the sea where baskets of apples and drying herbs on the porch mingled their scents with those ... more »
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Popular Poems
- [Four Sonnets (1922)]
- A Visit To The Asylum
- Afternoon on a Hill
- Alms
- An Ancient Gesture
- And do you think that love itself
- And you as well must die, belovèd dust
- Apostrophe To Man
- Ashes Of Life
- Assault
- Autumn Daybreak
- Being Young And Green
- Blight
- Bluebeard
Quotations
more quotations »-
''I will be the gladdest thing
Edna St. Vincent Millay (1892-1950), U.S. poet. Afternoon on a Hill (l. 1-4). . ; pseud. "Nancy Boyd" Collected Poems [Edna St. Vincent Millay]. N...
Under the sun!
I will touch a hundred flowers
And not pick one.''
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''It mattering not how beautiful you were,
Edna St. Vincent Millay (1892-1950), U.S. poet. And You as Well Must Die, Beloved Dust (l. 13-14). . ; pseud. "Nancy Boyd" Collected Poems [Edna S...
Or how beloved above all else that dies.''
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''this wonder fled,
Edna St. Vincent Millay (1892-1950), U.S. poet. And You as Well Must Die, Beloved Dust (l. 7-9). . ; pseud. "Nancy Boyd" Collected Poems [Edna St....
Altered, estranged, disintegrated, lost.
Nor shall my love avail you in your hour.''
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Childhood is not from birth to a certain age and at a certain age.
Edna St. Vincent Millay (1892-1950), U.S. poet and author. "Childhood Is the Kingdom Where Nobody Dies," Wine From the Grapes (1934).
The child is grown, and puts away childish things.
Childhood is the kingdom where nobody dies.
Nobody that matte...
And I to lie with you, Melissa. On a bright sunshiny morning in the High Sierras or in an evening during the magic of an alpenglow..
One of the poems iin which Millay is shattered and humiliated not by the loss of love but by the travesty of justice during the Sacco-Vanzetti trumped up trial. Both were executed - more for being Italian immigrants and anarchists..than for anything based on evidence. Compare to the infamous Dreyfuss Affair in France.
The pernicious weeds have won, Millay's character thinks.
I guess my previous information was incorrect. This PH biography seems to imply she died from smoking; my understanding was that she fell down a flight of steps at her home and broke her neck.
This poem created a relaxing feel for me. I would give anything to be able to just lay under the sun on a hill.