Poem by Edna St. Vincent Millay

Sonnet 04: Not In This Chamber Only At My Birth

Not in this chamber only at my birth—
   When the long hours of that mysterious night
   Were over, and the morning was in sight—
I cried, but in strange places, steppe and firth
I have not seen, through alien grief and mirth;
   And never shall one room contain me quite
   Who in so many rooms first saw the light,
Child of all mothers, native of the earth.

So is no warmth for me at any fire
   To-day, when the world’s fire has burned so low;
I kneel, spending my breath in vain desire,
At that cold hearth which one time roared so strong,
And straighten back in weariness, and long
   To gather up my little gods and go.

1. Low-Tide
2. MacDougal Street
3. Well, I Have Lost You
4. The Suicide
5. The Merry Maid

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