Recuerdo by Edna St. Vincent Millay

Recuerdo
by
Edna St. Vincent Millay

We were very tired, we were very merry —
We had gone back and forth all night on the ferry.

It was bare and bright, and smelled like a stable —

But we looked into a fire, we leaned across a table,

We lay on the hill-top underneath the moon;

And the whistles kept blowing, and the dawn came soon.

We were very tired, we were very merry —

We had gone back and forth all night on the ferry;

And you ate an apple, and I ate a pear,

From a dozen of each we had bought somewhere;

And the sky went wan, and the wind came cold,

And the sun rose dripping, a bucketful of gold.

We were very tired, we were very merry,

We had gone back and forth all night on the ferry.

We hailed, "Good morrow, mother!" to a shawl-covered head,

And bought a morning paper, which neither of us read;

And she wept, "God bless you!" for the apples and the pears,

And we gave her all our money but our subway fares.

This poem is in the public domain.

Poet and playwright Edna St. Vincent Millay was the first woman to win a Pulitzer Prize. She began publishing poems while still in high school and earned a full scholarship to Vassar based largely on a single poem, called "Renascence." Part of a prominent group of artists and writers who lived in Greenwich Village, Millay was as famous for her bohemian lifestyle as for her writing. She spent the last half of her life entertaining fellow artists with her husband at Steepletop, their pastoral New York estate, which is now a National Historic Landmark.

transitions:
The line that thrilled me was 'and the sun rose dripping, a bucktful of gold'; I agree with KevinArnold. Brava, Vincent... Judy
Posted 08/24/2013 12:21 PM

KevinArnold:
Such craft, getting it all working together. The first two lines of each stanza are ALMOST identical, but the punctuation differs. "And the sun rose dripping, a bucketful of gold."--a beautiful line that put me right there, and giving their money and fruit to the shawl-covered stranger--it all works together for me. Brava!
Posted 08/24/2013 09:14 AM

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