Spring
Edna St. Vincent Millay 1892 (Rockland) – 1950 (Austerlitz)
To what purpose, April, do you return again?
Beauty is not enough.
You can no longer quiet me with the redness
Of little leaves opening stickily.
I know what I know.
The sun is hot on my neck as I observe
The spikes of the crocus.
The smell of the earth is good.
It is apparent that there is no death.
But what does that signify?
Not only under ground are the brains of men
Eaten by maggots.
Life in itself
Is nothing,
An empty cup, a flight of uncarpeted stairs.
It is not enough that yearly, down this hill,
April
Comes like an idiot, babbling and strewing flowers.
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on April 13, 2023
- 33 sec read
- 176 Views
Quick analysis:
Scheme | ABCDEFCGHIAJKLMDDN |
---|---|
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 558 |
Words | 111 |
Stanzas | 1 |
Stanza Lengths | 18 |
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"Spring" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 13 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem/9454/spring>.
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