Scrub

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



If I grow bitterly,
Like a gnarled and stunted tree,
Bearing harshly of my youth
Puckered fruit that sears the mouth;
If I make of my drawn boughs
An Inshospitable House,
Out of which I nevery pry
Towards the water and the sky,
Under which I stand and hide
And hear the day go by outside;
It is that a wind to strong
Bent my back when I was young,
It is that I fear the rain
Lest it blister me again.

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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on April 27, 2023

25 sec read
460

Quick analysis:

Scheme AABCDEFFGGHIJK
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 395
Words 84
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…

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    "Scrub" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 29 Mar. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem/9422/scrub>.

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