If I Should Learn, In Some Quite Casual Way

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



IF I should learn, in some quite casual way,  
   That you were gone, not to return again—  
Read from the back-page of a paper, say,  
   Held by a neighbor in a subway train,  
How at the corner of this avenue         
   And such a street (so are the papers filled)  
A hurrying man—who happened to be you—  
   At noon to-day had happened to be killed,  
I should not cry aloud—I could not cry  
   Aloud, or wring my hands in such a place—         
I should but watch the station lights rush by  
   With a more careful interest on my face,  
Or raise my eyes and read with greater care  
Where to store furs and how to treat the hair.  
  

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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on April 11, 2023

35 sec read
154

Quick analysis:

Scheme ABACDEDEFGFGHH
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 648
Words 119
Stanzas 1
Stanza Lengths 14

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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    Quiz

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    Lewis Carroll wrote: "You are old father William, the young man said..."
    A "and your hair has become very white"
    B "and you're going to die tonight"
    C "and you seem to have lost your sight"
    D "and your eyes have become less bright"