Millay Quotes

“Parrots, tortoises and redwoods live a longer life than men do; Men a longer life than dogs do; Dogs a longer life than love does.”
― Edna St. Vincent Millay, Millay

“I felt his gaze, I heard his moan,
And knew his hunger as my own.”
― Edna St. Vincent Millay, Millay

“The room is full of you! — As I came in
And closed the door behind me, all at once
A something in the air, intangible,
yet stiff with meaning, struck my senses sick!—”
― Edna St. Vincent Millay, Millay

“Not speak however silently,
But my hushed voice will answer Thee”
― Edna St. Vincent Millay, Millay

“— Infinity
Came down and settled over me;
Forced back my scream into my chest,
Bent back my arm upon my breast”
― Edna St. Vincent Millay, Millay

“Mine is a body that should die at sea!
And have for a grave, instead of a grave
Six feet deep and the length of me,
All the water that is under the wave!

And terrible fishes to seize my flesh,
Such as a living man might fear,
And eat me while I am firm and fresh, -
Not wait till I’ve been dead for a year!”
― Edna St. Vincent Millay, Millay

“Over these things I could not see;
These were the things that bounded me;
And I could touch them with my hand,
Almost, I thought, from where I stand.
And all at once things seemed so small
My breath came short, and scarce at all.”
― Edna St. Vincent Millay, Millay

“I would I were alive again
To kiss the fingers of the rain,
To drink into my eyes the shine
Of every slating silver line,
To catch the freshened, fragrant breeze
From drenched and dripping apple-trees.”
― Edna St. Vincent Millay, Millay

“And as it went my tortured soul
(...) That all about me swirled the dust.

Deep in the earth I rested now,
Cool is its hands upon the brow
And soft its breast beneath the head
Of one who is so gladly dead.”
― Edna St. Vincent Millay, Millay