Wednesday, 24 December 2014

POEM BY EDNA ST. VINCENT MILLAY





Edna St. Vincent Millay (1892–1950).  Renascence and Other Poems.  1917.
 
22. “If I should learn, in some quite casual way”
 
Sonnet V
 

 
IF I should learn, in some quite casual way,
    That you were gone, not to return again—
Read from the back-page of a paper, say,
    Held by a neighbor in a subway train,
How at the corner of this avenue        5
    And such a street (so are the papers filled)
A hurrying man—who happened to be you—
    At noon to-day had happened to be killed,
I should not cry aloud—I could not cry
    Aloud, or wring my hands in such a place—        10
I should but watch the station lights rush by
    With a more careful interest on my face,
Or raise my eyes and read with greater care
Where to store furs and how to treat the hair.

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