 Poetry: February 04, 2015 Issue [#6808] |
  Poetry
This week: Edna St. Vincent Millay Edited by: Stormy Lady  
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| This is poetry from the minds and the hearts of poets on Writing.Com. The poems I am going to be exposing throughout this newsletter are ones that I have found to be, very visual, mood setting and uniquely done. Stormy Lady |
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Autumn Daybreak
by Edna St. Vincent Millay
Cold wind of autumn, blowing loud
At dawn, a fortnight overdue,
Jostling the doors, and tearing through
My bedroom to rejoin the cloud,
I know—for I can hear the hiss
And scrape of leaves along the floor—
How may boughs, lashed bare by this,
Will rake the cluttered sky once more.
Tardy, and somewhat south of east,
The sun will rise at length, made known
More by the meager light increased
Than by a disk in splendour shown;
When, having but to turn my head,
Through the stripped maple I shall see,
Bleak and remembered, patched with red,
The hill all summer hid from me.
The Dream
by Edna St. Vincent Millay
Love, if I weep it will not matter,
And if you laugh I shall not care;
Foolish am I to think about it,
But it is good to feel you there.
Love, in my sleep I dreamed of waking,—
White and awful the moonlight reached
Over the floor, and somewhere, somewhere,
There was a shutter loose,—it screeched!
Swung in the wind,—and no wind blowing!—
I was afraid, and turned to you,
Put out my hand to you for comfort,—
And you were gone! Cold, cold as dew,
Under my hand the moonlight lay!
Love, if you laugh I shall not care,
But if I weep it will not matter,—
Ah, it is good to feel you there!
On February 22, 1892, in Rockland Maine, Mr. and Mrs St Vincent Millay welcomed daughter Edna St Vincent Millay into their family. Edna was one of four daughters the couple had. Her father left the family while Edna was still young. Her mother Cora raised her and the others on her own. At the age of twenty Millay published her first poem, “Renascence.” As a result of this publication Millay was given a scholarship to Vassar. In 1917 Millay graduated and moved to New York’s Greenwood Village. She also published her first book, “Renascence and Other Poems.”
In New York Millay joined a left -wing journal, The Masses, that was against the United States involvement with in the First World War. She also joined a theatre group where she continued to write as well as act on stage. In 1918 Millay directed and starred in her own play, Thee Princess Marries the Page. Following that production she directed Two Slatterns and the King. Millay published a new volume of poems “A Few Figs From Thistles,” in 1920. the poems written in this new book caused controversy for Millay because her poems dealt with female sexuality and feminism. Her next publication was “the Harp Weaver,” in 1923. It was award the the Pulitzer Prize.
In 1923 Millay married the widower Eugen Boissevain. The couple chose a lifestyle of free-love and open marriage. Boissevain became Millay’s manager, he booked many popular readings of Millay’s work. Millay’s friend and fellow writer Floyd Dell stated in his autobiography he "never heard poetry read so beautifully". Millay continued her protesting and with fellow writers from “The Masses” Floyd Dell, Upton Sinclair, Dorothy Parker, Ben Shahn against the execution of Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti. This time she was arrested for “sauntering and loitering" she was wearing a sign that read "If These Men Are Executed, Justice is Dead in Massachusetts.” Millay would later write several poems about Sacco-Vanzetti Case. The poem “Justice Denied in Massachusetts” was published in her next volume of poems, “The Buck and The Snow,” in 1928 and was the most famous poem about the case.
Millay published “Fatal Interview” in 1931 a volume of 52 sonnets focusing more on love. It was followed by “Wine From These Grapes” published in 1934 poetry that went back to show Millay’s political views. Her book Huntsman, What Quarry?” published in 1939 was more focused on the Spanish Civil War and fascism. During the Second World War Millay abandoned her views and wrote more patriotic poetry such as, “Not to be Spattered by His Blood” in 1941, followed by “Murder at Lidice” in 1942” and “Poem and Prayer for an Invading Army” published in 1944.
On October 19,1950, Edna St Vincent Millay was found dead in her home by a caretaker that had come to fix the fireplace. She was in her nightgown and was laying at the bottom of her stairs. The doctor said she died of heart attack. She was 58 years old.
Portrait By A Neighbour
by Edna St. Vincent Millay
Before she has her floor swept
Or her dishes done,
Any day you'll find her
A-sunning in the sun!
It's long after midnight
Her key's in the lock,
And you never see her chimney smoke
Til past ten o'clock!
She digs in her garden
With a shovel and a spoon,
She weeds her lazy lettuce
By the light of the moon,
She walks up the walk
Like a woman in a dream,
She forgets she borrowed butter
Any pays you back in cream!
Her lawn looks like a meadow,
And if she mows the place
She leaves the clover standing
And the Queen Anne's lace!
Thank you all!
Stormy Lady
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The winner of "Stormy's poetry newsletter & contest" [ASR] is:
Cast Off
Cast off
cast off
your withering body
like a canvas shroud.
You were an elegant riddle
to all who knew you in your
alluring earthbound form.
Polished dreams
could not
hold you
lest the dream
of being
reunited.
Cast off
cast off
the aching torturous
longing of
aloneness.
You suffocated your
entire lifetime
as you endlessly
struggled
for freedom
as the
symphony of angels
comforted you.
Cast off
cast off
from these shores
and let
your disappearance
from the tomb
of life
be known.
Honorable mention:
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These are the rules:
1) You must use the words I give in a poem or prose with no limits on length.
2) The words can be in any order and anywhere throughout the poem and can be any form of the word.
3) All entries must be posted in your portfolio and you must post the link in this forum, "Stormy's poetry newsletter & contest" [ASR] by February 27, 2015.
4) The winner will get 3000 gift points and the poem will be displayed in this section of the newsletter the next time it is my turn to post (March 4, 2015)
The words are:
iron, jewel, stripped, throne, depression, scratches, smog, evil
 Good luck to all
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