Tag Archives: Edna St. Vincent Millay

“When I have found a way to express the inexpressible …”

“When I have found a way to express the inexpressible, I will tell you how I love you.”

— Edna St. Vincent Millay, diary entry circa 1911



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Photo: Edna St. Vincent Millay in Mamaroneck,[4] New York, 1914, by Arnold Genthe.

“What lips my lips have kissed, and where, and why,” by Edna St. Vincent Millay

My good friend Jaine Sirieys posted this yesterday.  It’s powerful, and I love it.

“What lips my lips have kissed, and where, and why”

by Edna St. Vincent Millay

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 the 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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