Edna St. Vincent Millay tweet poetry

Edna St. Vincent Millay (1892-1950) poet, playwright and feminist. Born in Maine, she spent her early life in poverty. Millay won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 1923 for "The Ballad of the Harp-Weaver"; the third woman to do so. She is sometime remembered more for her sexuality than her poetry. In her own time, she was highly regarded especially as a sonnet writer and awarded the Frost medal for her contribution to American poetry in 1943.

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An empty cup a flight of uncarpeted stairs It is not enough that yearly down this hill April Comes like an idiot babbling & strewing flowers

The full poem is here:


Spring

O what purpose, April, do you return again?
Beauty is not enough.
You can no longer quiet me with the redness
Of little leaves opening stickily.
I know what I know.
The sun is hot on my neck as I observe
The spikes of the crocus.
The smell of the earth is good.
It is apparent that there is no death.
But what does that signify?
Not only under ground are the brains of men
Eaten by maggots.
Life in itself
Is nothing,
An empty cup, a flight of uncarpeted stairs.
It is not enough that yearly, down this hill,
April
Comes like an idiot, babbling and strewing flowers.

1921.


More information is available here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edna_St._Vincent_Millay.

Legendary women poets, Northampton (MA) USA 31st March 2012

Connecticut-based Free Poets Collective together with Naugatuck River Review invokes the spirits of women poets such as Edna St. Vincent Millay, H.D., the local Belle of Amherst, and others through the voices of today's finest living poets.

Forbes Library Community Room from 1:00PM until 3:30 PM.

Live music and limited invitational open mic. Free and open to the public.

More information available here http://www.facebook.com/Forbes.Library.