Home > Work > The Harp-Weaver and Other Poems
1 " Pity me that the heart is slow to learnWhat the swift mind beholds at every turn. "
― Edna St. Vincent Millay , The Harp-Weaver and Other Poems
2 " I will come back to you, I swear I will;And you will know me still.I shall be only a little tallerThan when I went. "
3 " ... but the rainIs full of ghosts tonight "
4 " How first you knew me in a book I wrote,How first you loved me for a written line "
5 " A wind with a wolf's headHowled about our door,And we burned up the chairsAnd sat upon the floor. "
6 " SiegeThis I do, being mad:Gather baubles about me,Sit in a circle of toys, and all the timeDeath beating the door in.White jade and an orange pitcher,Hindu idol, Chinese god,—Maybe next year, when I’m richer—Carved beads and a lotus pod...And all this timeDeath beating the door in. "
7 " Never May the Fruit Be Plucked” Never, never may the fruit be plucked from the boughAnd gathered into barrels.He that would eat of love must eat it where it hangs.Though the branches bend like reeds,Though the ripe fruit splash in the grass or wrinkle on the tree,He that would eat of love may bear away with himOnly what his belly can hold,Nothing in the apron,Nothing in the pockets.Never, never may the fruit be gathered from the boughAnd harvested in barrels.The winter of love is a cellar of empty bins,In an orchard soft with rot. "