Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

SONNET: 9 by EDNA ST. VINCENT MILLAY

Poet Analysis

First Line: I THINK I SHOULD HAVE LOVED YOU PRESENTLY
Last Line: WHO WOULD HAVE LOVED YOU IN A DAY OR TWO.
Subject(s): LOVE;
I think I should have loved you presently,
And given in earnest words I flung in jest;
And lifted honest eyes for you to see,
And caught your hand against my cheek and breast;
And all my pretty follies flung aside
That won you to me, and beneath your gaze,
Naked of reticence and shorn of pride,
Spread like a chart my little wicked ways.
I, that had been to you, had you remained,
But one more waking from a recurrent dream,
Cherish no less the certain stakes I gained,
And walk your memory's halls, austere, supreme,
A ghost in marble of a girl you knew
Who would have loved you in a day or two.



Home: PoetryExplorer.net