Edna St. Vincent Millay Quotes

Am I kin to Sorrow,That so oftFalls the knocker of my door—Neither loud nor soft,But as long accustomed—Under Sorrow’s hand?

~ Edna St. Vincent Millay

Sorrow like a ceaseless rainBeats upon my heart.People twist and scream in pain,—Dawn will find them still again;This has neither wax nor wane,Neither stop nor start.

~ Edna St. Vincent Millay

Into each dance must be packed the panic and ecstasy of her last moment of life, for underneath was death.

~ Edna St. Vincent Millay

I will be the gladdest thing under the sun! I will touch a hundred flowers and not pick one.

~ Edna St. Vincent Millay

Strong sun, that bleachThe curtains of my room, can you not renderColourless this dress I wear?—This violent plaidOf purple angers and red shames; the yellow stripeOf thin but valid treacheries; the flashy green of kind deeds doneThrough indolence, high judgments given in haste;The recurring checker of the serious breach of taste?

~ Edna St. Vincent Millay

The sky, I thought, is not so grand;I 'most could touch it with my hand!And reaching up my hand to try,I screamed to feel it touch the sky.

~ Edna St. Vincent Millay

Searching my heart for its true sorrow, This is the thing I find to be: That I am weary of words and people, Sick of the city, wanting the sea.

~ Edna St. Vincent Millay

I know I am but summer to your heart, And not the full four seasons of the year; And you must welcome from another part Such noble moods as are not mine, my dear. No gracious weight of golden fruits to sell Have I, nor any wise and wintry thing; And I have loved you all too long and well To carry still the high sweet breast of Spring. Wherefore I say: O love, as summer goes, I must be gone, steal forth with silent drums, That you may hail anew the bird and rose When I come back to you, as summer comes. Else will you seek, at some not distant time, Even your summer in another clime.

~ Edna St. Vincent Millay

My heart is warm with the friends I make And better friends I'll not be knowing Yet there isn't a train I wouldn't take No matter where it's going.

~ Edna St. Vincent Millay

A person who publishes a book appears willfully in public with his pants down.

~ Edna St. Vincent Millay

Please give me some good advice in your next letter. I promise not to follow it.

~ Edna St. Vincent Millay

The soul can split the sky in two and let the face of God shine through.

~ Edna St. Vincent Millay

God, I can push the grass apart and lay my finger on Thy heart.

~ Edna St. Vincent Millay

Beauty is whatever gives joy.

~ Edna St. Vincent Millay