Quotes by Edna St. Vincent Millay

“Lost in Hell,-Persephone,Take her head upon your knee;Say to her, "My dear, my dear,It is not so dreadful here.”

“Am I kin to Sorrow,That so oftFalls the knocker of my doorNeither loud nor soft,But as long accustomedUnder Sorrows hand?”

“Sorrow like a ceaseless rainBeats upon my heart.People twist and scream in pain,Dawn will find them still again;This has neither wax nor wane,Neither stop nor start.”

“Into each dance must be packed the panic and ecstasy of her last moment of life, for underneath was death.”

“You see, I am a poet, and not quite right in the head, darling. Its only that.”

“I will be the gladdest thing under the sun! I will touch a hundred flowers and not pick one.”

“Strong sun, that bleachThe curtains of my room, can you not renderColourless this dress I wear?This violent plaidOf purple angers and red shames; the yellow stripeOf thin but valid treacheries; the...”

“The sky, I thought, is not so grand;I 'most could touch it with my hand!And reaching up my hand to try,I screamed to feel it touch the sky.”

“Searching my heart for its true sorrow, This is the thing I find to be: That I am weary of words and people, Sick of the city, wanting the sea.”

“Please give me some good advice in your next letter. I promise not to follow it.”

“The soul can split the sky in two and let the face of God shine through.”

“God, I can push the grass apart and lay my finger on Thy heart.”

“Beauty is whatever gives joy.”

“I know I am but summer to your heart, And not the full four seasons of the year; And you must welcome from another part Such noble moods as are not mine, my dear. No gracious weight of golden fruit...”

“And all the loveliest things there be Come simply so it seems to me.”

“Strange how few After all's said and done the things that are Of moment.”

“My heart is warm with the friends I make And better friends I'll not be knowing Yet there isn't a train I wouldn't take No matter where it's going.”

“With him for a sire and her for a dam What should I be but just what I am?”

“It is not true that life is one damn thing after another- it's one damn thing over and over.”

“I love humanity but I hate people.”