Spring
Spring
Original Text
Edna St. Vincent Millay, Second April (New York: Mitchell Kennerley, 1921): 1. B-11 3143 Fisher Rare Book Library.
2Beauty is not enough.
3You can no longer quiet me with the redness
4Of little leaves opening stickily.
5I know what I know.
6The sun is hot on my neck as I observe
7The spikes of the crocus.
8The smell of the earth is good.
9It is apparent that there is no death.
10But what does that signify?
11Not only under ground are the brains of men
12Eaten by maggots.
13Life in itself
14Is nothing,
15An empty cup, a flight of uncarpeted stairs.
16It is not enough that yearly, down this hill,
17April
18Comes like an idiot, babbling and strewing flowers.
Notes
1] This poem introduces the subject of the entire collection and is accordingly italicized in the original.
Cf. the opening of T. S. Eliot's The Waste Land, "April is the cruelest month". Back to Line
Cf. the opening of T. S. Eliot's The Waste Land, "April is the cruelest month". Back to Line
Publication Start Year
1920
Publication Notes
Published in The Chapbook
RPO poem Editors
Ian Lancashire
RPO Edition
RPO 1998.
Form