Collected Poems
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About this ebook
“One of the greatest American poets of her time.”—New York Times
Collected Poems features Edna St. Vincent Millay’s incisive and impassioned poetry and sonnets, as well as the poet’s last volume, Mine the Harvest, compiled and published in 1956 by her sister Norma Millay. Alongside Robert Frost, T.S. Eliot, Marianne Moore, and E. E. Cummings, Millay remains among the most celebrated poets of the early twentieth century for her uniquely lyrical explorations of love, individuality, and artistic expression.
Millay, winner in 1923 of the second annual Pulitzer Prize for Poetry, was a daring, versatile writer whose work includes plays, essays, short stories, and songs. She infused new life into traditional poetic forms, bringing hope to a generation of youth disillusioned by the political and social upheaval of the First World War. She ventured fearlessly beyond familiar poetic subjects to tackle political injustice, social discrimination, and women’s sexuality in her poems and prose.
Yet Millay’s poetry is still decisively modern in its message, and it continues to resonate with readers facing personal and moral issues that defy the test of time: romantic love, loss, betrayal, compassion for one another, social equality, patriotism, and the stewardship of the natural world.
This invaluable compendium of her work is not only an essential addition to any collection of the world’s most moving and memorable poetry but an unprecedented look into the life of Millay.
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!
“First Fig” from A Few Figs from Thistles (1920)
Edna St. Vincent Millay
Edna St. Vincent Millay was born in 1892 in Rockland, Maine, the eldest of three daughters, and was encouraged by her mother to develop her talents for music and poetry. Her long poem "Renascence" won critical attention in an anthology contest in 1912 and secured for her a patron who enabled her to go to Vassar College. After graduating in 1917 she lived in Greenwich Village in New York for a few years, acting, writing satirical pieces for journals (usually under a pseudonym), and continuing to work at her poetry. She traveled in Europe throughout 1921-22 as a "foreign correspondent" for Vanity Fair. Her collection A Few Figs from Thistles (1920) gained her a reputation for hedonistic wit and cynicism, but her other collections (including the earlier Renascence and Other Poems [1917]) are without exception more seriously passionate or reflective. In 1923 she married Eugene Boissevain and -- after further travel -- embarked on a series of reading tours which helped to consolidate her nationwide renown. From 1925 onwards she lived at Steepletop, a farmstead in Austerlitz, New York, where her husband protected her from all responsibilities except her creative work. Often involved in feminist or political causes (including the Sacco-Vanzetti case of 1927), she turned to writing anti-fascist propaganda poetry in 1940 and further damaged a reputation already in decline. In her last years of her life she became more withdrawn and isolated, and her health, which had never been robust, became increasingly poor. She died in 1950.
Read more from Edna St. Vincent Millay
The Selected Poetry of Edna St. Vincent Millay (Renascence and Other Poems, A Few Figs from Thistles, Second April, and The Ballad of the Harp-Weaver) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Early Poems Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Few Figs from Thistles Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Few Figs from Thistles: The Poetry of Edna St. Vincent Millay Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Poems: "Not truth, but faith, it is that keeps the world alive" Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsKin to Sorrow - The Self Reflections of Edna St. Vincent Millay Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Edna St. Vincent Millay Collection Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSecond April Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5First Fig and Other Poems Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Little Ghost - And Other Poems on Grief and Healing Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAria Da Capo: A Play in One Act Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAfternoon on a Hill - Love Letters to Nature Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWild Nights: Heart Wisdom from Five Women Poets Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Renascence and Other Poems Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Second April: The Poetry of Edna St. Vincent Millay Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Poet and His Book: The Collected Poems of Edna St. Vincent Millay Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsRenascence and Other Poems Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Lamp and the Bell: A Drama In Five Acts Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Wood's Edge - Legends and Fairy Tales of Edna St. Vincent Millay Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsPoetry for Honeymooners Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAmerican Poetry, 1922: A Miscellany Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAria da Capo Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSecond April: "The young are so old, they are born with their fingers crossed" Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Lamp and the Bell: A Drama In Five Acts Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAria da Capo: "Please give me some good advice in your next letter. I promise not to follow it" Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Lamp and the Bell - A Drama in Five Acts: With a Biography by Carl Van Doren Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
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Reviews for Collected Poems
18 ratings2 reviews
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I've always loved Millay's poetry and it was a thrill to go up to Mt. Battie in Camden and read Renascence on the plaque, then to see what she saw when she wrote the poem.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5beautiful collection