Sonnet I: Thou art not lovelier than lilacs
Edna St. Vincent Millay 1892 (Rockland) – 1950 (Austerlitz)
Thou art not lovelier than lilacs,--no,
Nor honeysuckle; thou art not more fair
Than small white single poppies,--I can bear
Thy beauty; though I bend before thee, though
From left to right, not knowing where to go,
I turn my troubled eyes, nor here nor there
Find any refuge from thee, yet I swear
So has it been with mist,--with moonlight so.
Like him who day by day unto his draught
Of delicate poison adds him one drop more
Till he may drink unharmed the death of ten,
Even so, inured to beauty, who have quaffed
Each hour more deeply than the hour before,
I drink--and live--what has destroyed some men.
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 16, 2023
- 34 sec read
- 163 Views
Quick analysis:
Scheme | ABBAABBACDECDE |
---|---|
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 628 |
Words | 116 |
Stanzas | 1 |
Stanza Lengths | 14 |
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"Sonnet I: Thou art not lovelier than lilacs" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 11 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem/9432/sonnet-i:-thou-art-not-lovelier-than-lilacs>.
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