Personal anthology: Edna St. Vincent Millay

Vacation looms, and I've been too excited about it to think any thoughts more interesting than "Whee!". Tomorrow I'm off for a week or so of travel, including a trip to Santa Fe for two operas and assorted sightseeing. I'll catch you all when I get back, at which point I'll no doubt be hyperventilating about seeing both Natalie Dessay and Patricia Racette, one after the other. (And will probably also have a kazillion Santa Fe photos to post. I've never been anywhere in the Southwest before!)

In the meantime, have some Edna St. Vincent Millay (an old favorite, and one that fits vaguely into the travel theme, but really I just wanted to post it because it's been in my head):

Recuerdo

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 a 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 pears,
And we gave her all our money but our subway fares.

(from A Few Figs From Thistles, 1922)

One Response to “Personal anthology: Edna St. Vincent Millay”

  1. dale says:

    Gute Reise!