Poem by Edna St. Vincent Millay

Sonnets 07: When I Too Long Have Looked Upon Your Face

When I too long have looked upon your face,
Wherein for me a brightness unobscured
Save by the mists of brightness has its place,
And terrible beauty not to be endured,
I turn away reluctant from your light,
And stand irresolute, a mind undone,
A silly, dazzled thing deprived of sight
From having looked too long upon the sun.
Then is my daily life a narrow room
In which a little while, uncertainly,
Surrounded by impenetrable gloom,
Among familiar things grown strange to me
Making my way, I pause, and feel, and hark,
Till I become accustomed to the dark.

1. The Snow Storm
2. Scrub
3. To S. M.
4. Sweet Love, Sweet Thorn, When Lightly To My Heart
5. Fontaine, Je Ne Boirai Pas De Ton Eau!

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