EDNA St. VINCENT MILLAY 1892-1950

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WHAT MY LIPS HAVE KISSED,  AND WHERE, AND WHY

What lips my lips have kissed, and where, and why, 

I have forgotten, and what arms have lain 

Under my head till morning; but the rain 

Is full of ghosts tonight, that tap and sigh 

Upon the glass and listen for reply, 

And in my heart there stirs a quiet pain 

For unremembered lads that not again 

Will turn to me at midnight with a cry. 

Thus in winter stands the lonely tree, 

Nor knows what birds have vanished one by one, 

Yet knows its boughs more silent than before: 

I cannot say what loves have come and gone, 

I only know that summer sang in me 

A little while, that in me sings no more. 

This American poet and playwright was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for poetry in 1923. She was also a writer of prose, usually under the nom de plume Nancy Boyd. The poet Richard Wilbur claimed that "she wrote some of the best sonnets of the century."

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