Edna St. Vincent Millay - Selected Poems

First Fig  

My candle burns at both ends;

It will not last the night;

But ah, my foes, and oh, my friends—

It gives a lovely light!  

Second Fig  

Safe upon the solid rock the ugly houses stand: 

Come and see my shining palace built upon the sand!

Afternoon on a Hill

I will be the gladdest thing

 Under the sun!

I will touch a hundred flowers

 And not pick one.

I will look at cliffs and clouds

 With quiet eyes,

Watch the wind bow down the grass,

 And the grass rise.

And when lights begin to show

 Up from the town,

I will mark which must be mine,

 And then start down!

Love Is Not All (read by the poet)

Recuerdo (read by the poet)

Oh, Think Not I Am Faithful to a Vow!

Oh, think not I am faithful to a vow!
Faithless am I save to love's self alone.
Were you not lovely I would leave you now:
After the feet of beauty fly my own.
Were you not still my hunger's rarest food,
And water ever to my wildest thirst,
I would desert you–think not but I would!–
And seek another as I sought you first.
But you are mobile as the veering air,
And all your charms more changeful than the tide,
Wherefore to be inconstant is no care:
I have but to continue at your side.
So wanton, light and false, my love, are you,
I am most faithless when I most am true.


Tavern

I'll keep a little tavern
Below the high hill's crest,
Wherein all grey-eyed people
May set them down and rest.

There shall be plates a-plenty,
And mugs to melt the chill
Of all the grey-eyed people
Who happen up the hill.

There sound will sleep the traveller,
And dream his journey's end,
But I will rouse at midnight
The falling fire to tend.

Aye, 'tis a curious fancy—
But all the good I know
Was taught me out of two grey eyes
A long time ago. 


More at:
http://www.poetryfoundation.org/bio/edna-st-vincent-millay
http://www.poemhunter.com/edna-st-vincent-millay/