Pastoral

Edna St. Vincent Millay 1892 (Rockland) – 1950 (Austerlitz)



If it were only still!—
With far away the shrill
Crying of a cock;
Or the shaken bell
From a cow's throat
Moving through the bushes;
Or the soft shock
Of wizened apples falling
From an old tree
In a forgotten orchard
Upon the hilly rock!

Oh, grey hill,
Where the grazing herd
Licks the purple blossom,
Crops the spiky weed!
Oh, stony pasture,
Where the tall mullein
Stands up so sturdy
On its little seed!

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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 27, 2023

24 sec read
376

Quick analysis:

Scheme AABXXXBXCDB ADXEXXCE
Closest metre Iambic trimeter
Characters 397
Words 79
Stanzas 2
Stanza Lengths 11, 8

Edna St. Vincent Millay

Edna St. Vincent Millay was an American 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 more…

All Edna St. Vincent Millay poems | Edna St. Vincent Millay Books

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    "Pastoral" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 29 Mar. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem/9415/pastoral>.

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