Sonnet IV: Not in this chamber

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



Not in this chamber only at my birth--
  When the long hours of that mysterious night
  Were over, and the morning was in sight--
I cried, but in strange places, steppe and firth
I have not seen, through alien grief and mirth;
  And never shall one room contain me quite
  Who in so many rooms first saw the light,
Child of all mothers, native of the earth.
So is no warmth for me at any fire
  To-day, when the world's fire has burned so low;
I kneel, spending my breath in vain desire,
At that cold hearth which one time roared so strong,
And straighten back in weariness, and long
  To gather up my little gods and go.

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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

36 sec read
61

Quick analysis:

Scheme ABBAABBACDCEED
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 629
Words 120
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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    "Sonnet IV: Not in this chamber" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 28 Mar. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem/9435/sonnet-iv:-not-in-this-chamber>.

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