ext_27201 ([identity profile] charlie-ego.livejournal.com) wrote in [community profile] greatpoetry 2008-09-06 11:58 pm (UTC)

Someone posted "One Art" (Elizabeth Bishop) in this community recently (http://community.livejournal.com/greatpoets/2463915.html), which is I think the most lovely understated heartbreak poem I know.

Another Millay for you:

Well, I have lost you; and I lost you fairly;
In my own way, and with my full consent.
Say what you will, kings in a tumbrel rarely
Went to their deaths more proud than this one went.
Some nights of apprehension and hot weeping
I will confess; but that's permitted me;
Day dried my eyes; I was not one for keeping
Rubbed in a cage a wing that would be free.
If I had loved you less or played you slyly
I might have held you for a summer more,
But at the cost of words I value highly,
And no such summer as the one before.
Should I outlive this anguish — and men do —
I shall have only good to say of you.

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