ext_339806 ([identity profile] ian-gazarek.livejournal.com) wrote in [community profile] greatpoetry2004-06-16 08:46 pm

Edna St Vincent Millay

Sonnet XLIII

What lips my lips have kissed, and where, and why,
I have forgotten, and what arms have lain
Under my head till morning; but the rain
Is full of ghosts tonight, that tap and sigh
Upon the glass and listen for reply,
And in my heart there stirs a quiet pain
For unremembered lads that not again
Will turn to me at midnight with a cry.
Thus in winter stands the lonely tree,
Nor knows what birds have vanished one by one,
Yet knows its boughs more silent than before:
I cannot say what loves have come and gone,
I only know that summer sang in me
A little while, that in me sings no more.

[identity profile] bardcat.livejournal.com 2004-06-17 10:59 am (UTC)(link)
wonderful!

[identity profile] omarius.livejournal.com 2004-06-17 07:25 pm (UTC)(link)
You know what I love about this community? Now, I don't read all the poems, but each time I do I'm never disappointed. Maybe someday someone whose taste I question will start posting here but it hasn't happened yet. I'm consistantly reminded of good stuff I've read before and introduced to good stuff I've never seen. It's great!

[identity profile] omarius.livejournal.com 2004-06-17 08:52 pm (UTC)(link)
What, my super 80-s era computer cartoon graphic of me? Scandalous?

[identity profile] omarius.livejournal.com 2004-06-17 09:17 pm (UTC)(link)
Yikes!

He does look... alert. Hrm.

[identity profile] live4lyfe.livejournal.com 2004-06-18 04:29 pm (UTC)(link)
I just came upon this the other day...
still hauntingly beautiful