Edna St. Vincent Millay: Collected Lyrics

by Edna St. Vincent Millay

These unique and beautiful lyrics -- over two hundred of them -- were selected by Edna St. Vincent Millay herself and represent the major portion of her lifework. Their musical perfection, emotional power, and superb, delicate workmanship have made Edna St. Vincent Millay one of America's great poets.

Genres: Poetry, Classics, Fiction, Reference, American

324 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1939

About the author

Edna St. Vincent Millay was an American lyrical poet and playwright. She received the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 1923, the third woman to win the award for poetry, and was also known for her feminist activism and her many love affairs. She used the pseudonym Nancy Boyd for her prose work.

This famous portrait of Vincent (as she was called by friends) was taken by Carl Van Vechten in 1933.

Reviews

[Theo Logos · Rating 5 out of 5]

I first encountered Edna St. Vincent Millay when I discovered her poem Dirge Without Music in a high school literature text. I was only fifteen, and it was love at first read.

A few years later I found this old, paperback volume of her poems at a used bookstore near campus. I was bewitched by the amazing poems within. First Fig, Second Fig, Witch Wife, Modern Declaration, and of course, Dirge Without Music — all of these poems (and many others) thoroughly captured my young imagination. I read them alone. I read them to friends. I read and quoted them to seduce lovers. They became an essential part of the furniture of my imagination.

I now have in my library a fine, hardback copy of Collected Poems, the definitive collection of Millay’s work compiled by her sister shortly after she died, but this ancient, tattered paperback, my first Millay collection, continues to have a place of honor on my shelves and in my heart.

[Amanda · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved many of the poems in here. Some of the recurring themes were death, grief, divine nature, love and heartbreak. I really enjoyed the longer narrative poems, which surprised me. Millay is definitely one of my favorite poets.

[Olivia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Yet, ah, my path is sweet on either side
All through the dragging day, -- sharp underfoot
And hot, and like dead mist the dry dust hangs --
But far, oh, far as passionate eye can reach,
And long, ah, long as rapturous eye can cling,
The world is mine: blue hill, still silver lake,
Broad field, bright flower, and the long white road;
A gateless garden, and an open path;
My feet to follow, and my heart to hold.

[Dan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I pursued Edna St. Vincent Millay after reading John McWhorter's "Doing Our Own Thing: The Degradation of Language and Music." He cited her as the poet of careful craft, an exemplary poet of pre-beat twentieth century America. And indeed, his promotion did not let me down. There were many poems I didn't care for in the volume, some too loose, some too political. The good ones were amazing, though, very carefully constructed, conscious of meter and rhyme. Many meditations on life, love, death, the mountains, and the sea that I would like to memorize. It's refreshing to read formal poetry, to escape rampant free verse for a while.

[Sarah Faber · Rating 5 out of 5]

Curated by ms Millay herself and published by Washington square press which is where I am every day!! Lots of new faves from this one. Always important to remember that anything I feel Edna st Vincent Millay has already felt and written about in a way that rhymes

[Nancy Lewis · Rating 4 out of 5]

Edna St Vincent Millay seems quite comfortable with death and other taboo topics for her time. I'm interested in reading her biography to learn more about her.

[Judith · Rating 4 out of 5]

Millay won the Pulitzer Prize for poetry in 1923, and when she published one of her collections, "Huntsman, What Quarry " it made the bestseller list. Can you imagine a book of poetry on the bestseller list today? I have always loved her poetry and it was fun to reread the old favorites and discover some new ones. It's funny to remember how romantic I thought these poems were when I was young, but they're still beautiful.

"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!"

[India · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'd give this book a 3.5.
Edna St. Vincent Millay has this sort of depression and melancholy that I really relate to.
Some of the poems were so beautiful and I loved the way she strung some sentences together. Others were a little harder to get through and it took me a little while to get the hang of the flow of her writing. All in all, I enjoyed this read.

[Maria Krol-Sinclair · Rating 5 out of 5]

The best book I have read in a long time, and probably my favorite book of poetry. Gorgeous, life changing poetry—a book that you can open any page of and find what you need. All the glory and tenderness of a human mind transposed onto the page.

[Cami · Rating 4 out of 5]

It seems like I've had this book forever.
Ms. Millay's poems are vibrant and sad. She writes about a variety of subjects.
Small example from a poem called The Musician:

"There, today, as in the days when I knew you well,
The willow sheds upon the stream its narrow leaves,
And the quiet flowing of the water and its faint smell
Are balm to the heart that grieves.

Together with the sharp discomfort of loving you,
Ineffable you, so lovely and so aloof,
There is laid upon the spirit the calmness of the river view:
Together they fall, the pain and it's reproof."

Seek her out and enjoy! The Ballad of the Harpweaver is my favorite of her poems, pg. 128

[Marie Kos · Rating 4 out of 5]

I inherited a beautiful hardbound edition of this collection from my grandmother. It was wonderful to read Edna St Vincent Millay's work for the first time through a familial connection. I cannot say that Millay always impresses me... sometimes, her poetry rings a little too simple in structure for me to feel that she's really paying attention to form all that much. I think she is best at long-form poetry, where her cadence rings like a bell throughout a long train of thought. These are the moments when her talent really shines.

Overall, a classic and recommended for any great fan of poetry.

[jeremy · Rating 5 out of 5]

the anguish

i would to god i were quenched and fed
as in my youth
from the flask of song, and the good bread
of beauty richer than truth.

the anguish of the world is on my tongue.
my bowl is filled to the brim with it; there is more than i can eat.
happy are the toothless old and the toothless young,
that cannot rend this meat.

[Samantha · Rating 5 out of 5]

Would have given it 4 stars if not for “To S.M.” That poem is breathtaking. She was incredible!

[Colin Harris · Rating 4 out of 5]

"I know some poison I could drink,
I've often thought I'd taste it.
But mother bought it for the sink,
And drinking it would waste it."

[Megan Bowden · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've come to discover that it's really difficult to rate poetry and short story collections because they can be so variable! Unlike a novel, where you are just judging one cohesive story, it is a struggle to write one succinct review for so many styles, themes, and forms.

In trying to get back to poetry, I do think I've fallen out of love with it. In high school, verse was probably my favorite thing to read, but in my adult years, I'm firmly in love with prose. That being said, I picked up Edna St. Vincent Millay's poetry because John Green quotes it so often, and since he is as much of an angsty human as I am, I thought it would be a good fit.

And it was...in places. This book is a sampling from all of Millay's works, and my favorite poems and lines came from the first three books that were sampled: Renaissance, Second April, and A Few Figs From Thistles. For me, these were her most emotive poems, ones that focused on her inner turmoil, ones I felt I could most relate to. Interestingly, they are her three earliest works.

The rest bogged me down in the things I don't much care for in poetry, describing nature, greek myth, epic verse. I would say about 70% of this book was just not for me. However, in the 30% I did like, I came out with two new favorites. The first is Spring; it just had such a great dose of ascorbic humor. The second is The Penitent, which really gets at the whole idea of "good girl" culture and how women should embrace turning from that role.

If nothing else, reading Millay's poetry made me turn to her Wiki page to learn more about her, and she is so fascinating. I would like to think of her as a missed friend from a bygone era.

[Chris]

I don’t know…Is Millay’s poetry old-fashioned? cloying? passé?
I like it.
Perhaps I’ve had this book since 1984, never reading more than a few cherished poems: “Czecho-Slovakia” (hyphenating the country well before its post-communist incarnation that held such a tenuous compatibility and eventual “velvet divorce”.) A poem that, while addressing the machinations of one would-be dictator, survives to call out later “strongmen” like Putin (in Crimea, and then, again, in Ukraine). First Fig and Second Fig, and Midnight Oil, which with their aphoristic brevity, were inspirational to a young man.
I enjoy Millay’s “story poems”, The Concert, The Ballad of The Harp-Weaver, Huntsman, What Quarry?, and Short Story.
The poem, Wild Swans put me in mind another favorite poem by Mary Oliver, Wild Geese. I’ve read elsewhere that Oliver has some admiration for Millay, so perhaps my connecting the two is not coincidental.
What I found in my closer reading of this volume is Millay’s excellent crafting of meter, music, and rhyme, and her powerful expression of—call it, feminism—a personal expression of her own autonomy and emotion.
Other Favorites: Apostrophe to Man, Conscientious Objector, Thursday, Renascence, Lines for a Grave-Stone, The Plum Gatherer.

[Jenny · Rating 3 out of 5]

I find it much easier to discuss poetry that's either remarkable (captures the both imagination and emotion) or terrible. But the in-between--the poetry that is well-written and lovely, but doesn't grab you by the shoulders and shake you--is a lot harder to talk about. And that's where this collection of Edna St. Vincent Millay falls for me. She's clearly talented, but few of the poems stirred a real response. I wonder if I would have loved them more in a different season--they're certainly worth a second attempt.

[Lucas Smith · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have to remember while I'm reading a poetry compilation that the selected poems were published over the course of a lifetime. The dramatic change in tone from Renascence to A Few Figs from Thistles that I detect is the result of a decade between the two. I like Millay's poems about nature more than about men. It seems like her relationship with nature was a bit healthier.

[Kendalyn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Dear old friend Edna. I highly recommend finding a tree to sit under, with a nice cat in lap who you can read her poem "Renascence" to. It demands to be read aloud and wept over a bit if you're the weepy type. And all her other poems...so beautiful. I can't get over the beauty that washed over me this autumn as I read them in the orchard where I go to watch each season settle in and pass on.

[christina · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not my style.

St Vincent Millay is definitely precise and her sing-songy poems are light but without substance. Attempts at something deeper than an obvious statement was haphazard and lost sight of itself, jarred more by the its want of effulgence than to penetrate any depth.

[Angeline Walsh · Rating 4 out of 5]

People saying her prose is too depressing clearly have not read Baudelaire.

[Brook White · Rating 5 out of 5]

I wholeheartedly enjoyed every piece in this collection and I wish more people were reading Edna St. Vincent Millay’s work — truly such a great poet.

[Jasmine Shadows · Rating 2 out of 5]

St. Vincent Millay will definitely never be listed among my favorite poets. This book definitely reaffirmed that for me.

[Betsy · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love most of Edna St. Vincent Millay's poetry as it is very descriptive, the compilation felt a bit disjointed. I think I would prefer to read one collection of her poems as a whole.

[Brian · Rating 3 out of 5]

ESVM is an undeniable force in American poetry. The formal and Christian elements did not resonate for me, but I appreciate her sensibility and ear for language nonetheless.

[Michaela · Rating 5 out of 5]

greatest to ever do it

[Richard Mattox · Rating 5 out of 5]

Many great poems, but I loved those from “The Buck in the Snow” the most.

[Liz · Rating 5 out of 5]

My absolute favorite poet. This collection is great to flip through or sit down and properly read--and it has the great feature of an index by first line.

My favorite is Witch-Wife, and you may remember "Recuerdo" and "Macdougal Street" from the NYC subway's "Poetry in Motion" series, back at the beginning when the poems were better. Her most famous, I think, are her shortest and her longest: "First Fig" and "Second Fig" on the short end and "Renascence" on the long end.

Millay was also the first woman to ever win the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry, if that kind of thing interests you. She was also known for her open marriage and bisexual bohemianism, if THAT kind of thing interests you.

[Sara · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some of Millay's poems are very, very good. In loose poems, the near rhymes and tricky rhyme patterns are bliss. In structured ones, she keeps the rhyme very well without losing too much.
A few poems aren't. Her short poems are better than long; her loose poems better than her structured.
While the imagery is very good, these poems are much more emotion than imagery. A few poems ("Childhood Is the Kingdom Where Nobody Dies") combine the two in genius.
Millay was more "traditional" than those in her time, but she's just as good in her own way.

[Drew · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm guessing every morning, Edna St. Vincent Millay awoke and asked herself, "What's the most depressing thing I can write about today?" Some days it was self-destruction ("The Suicide"). Some days it was poverty ("The Ballad of the Harp Weaver"). Still other days it was death ("Renascence") or war ("Three Sonnets in Tetrameter") or injustice ("Justice Denied In Massachusetts"). On good days, she wrote about nature. Yes, she can gush and wax and sound every bit the poetess but this collection contains many verses worth your while.