Book Beginning/Friday 56: Renascence and Other Poems by Edna St. Vincent Millay

Book Beginnings on Fridays hosted by Rose City Reader, where bloggers share the first sentence or more of a current read, as well as initial thoughts about the sentence(s), impressions of the book, or anything else that the opening inspires.

ALL I could see from where I stood
Was three long mountains and a wood;
I turned and looked the other way,
And saw three islands in a bay.
So with my eyes I traced the line
Of the horizon, thin and fine,
Straight around till I was come
Back to where I'd started from;
And all I saw from where I stood
Was three long mountains and a wood.

~~from Renascence

The Shroud

DEATH, I say, my heart is bowed

Unto thine,—O mother!

This red gown will make a shroud

Good as any other!

(I, that would not wait to wear
My own bridal things,
In a dress dark as my hair
Made my answerings.

I, to-night, that till he came
Could not, could not wait,

In a gown as bright as flame

Held for them the gate.)

~~~Posted for The Friday 56, which is hosted by Freda's Voice

Renascence and Other Poems by Edna St. Vincent Millay (1917)

Millay, Edna St. Vincent, 1892-1950

In this book of poetry, the descriptions of nature is exquisite and imagery is marvellous. In the title poem "Renascence" Millay is eloquent about the core of the universe consisting of God, death, living, suffering and also the beauties of the world. 

"The heart can push the sea and land

Farther away on either hand

The soul can split the sky in two

And let the face of God shine through..."

Millay explores  the beauty of nature, and speaks of love and loss at the same time. The poems are about a perfect autumn and flowered fields, about starting a tavern for grey-eyed people, witch-wives, broken heart, and short poems like "shattering." "The Suicide", touched me--

"CURSE thee, Life, I will live with thee no more

Thou hast mocked me, starved me, beat my body sore!

And all for a pledge that was not pledged by me,

I have kissed thy crust and eaten sparingly

That I might eat again, and met thy sneers

With deprecations, and thy blows with tears,—

Aye, from thy glutted lash, glad, crawled away,

As if spent passion were a holiday!"

At first glance, her poems may seem very simplistic as her lines are short and themes universal. She does not go for complex rhyming or stream of consciousness. Some of the poems are more like songs. The language is beautiful, metaphors don't hit hard and tends more towards nature even when she is writing about the human emotions and feelings.

"I WILL be the gladdest thing
Under the sun!
I will touch a hundred flowers

And not pick one...."

Renascence and Other Poems is not just about beautiful language but it is about our emotions, feelings, the beauty of nature and the pure enjoyment that comes from reading great poetry.