What Lips My Lips Have Kissed, And Where, And Why (Sonnet XLIII)

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



What lips my lips have kissed, and where, and why,
I have forgotten, and what arms have lain
Under my head till morning; but the rain
Is full of ghosts tonight, that tap and sigh
Upon the glass and listen for reply,
And in my heart there stirs a quiet pain
For unremembered lads that not again
Will turn to me at midnight with a cry.
Thus in winter stands the lonely tree,
Nor knows what birds have vanished one by one,
Yet knows its boughs more silent than before:
I cannot say what loves have come and gone,
I only know that summer sang in me
A little while, that in me sings no more.

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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on April 17, 2023

35 sec read
210

Quick analysis:

Scheme ABBAABCADEFGDF
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 594
Words 118
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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