Poem by Edna St. Vincent Millay

Intention to Escape from Him

I think I will learn some beautiful language, useless for commercial
Purposes, work hard at that.
I think I will learn the Latin name of every songbird, not only in
America but wherever they sing.
(Shun meditation, though; invite the controversial:
Is the world flat? Do bats eat cats?) By digging hard I might
deflect that river, my mind, that uncontrollable thing,
Turgid and yellow, srong to overflow its banks in spring, 
carrying away bridges
A bed of pebbles now, through which there trickles one clear
narrow stream, following a course henceforth nefast—

Dig, dig; and if I come to ledges, blast.

1. Assault
2. Tavern
3. Sonnets 11: As To Some Lovely Temple, Tenantless
4. Eel-Grass
5. Fontaine, Je Ne Boirai Pas De Ton Eau!

Print

1325 Views

Last Poems

To Russian version