Poem by Edna St. Vincent Millay

* * *

The heart once broken is a heart no more,
And is absolved from all a heart must be;
All that it signed or chartered heretofore
Is cancelled now, the bankrupt heart is free;
So much of duty as you may require
Of shards and dust, this and no more of pain,
This and no more of hope, remorse, desire,
The heart once broken need support again.
How simple ’tis, and what a little sound
It makes in breaking, let the world attest:
It struggles, and it fails; the world goes round,
And the moon follows it. Heart in my breast,
‘Tis half a year now since you broke in two;
The world’s forgotten well, if the world knew.

1. The Courage That My Mother Had
2. If to Be Left Were to Be Left Alone
3. Apostrophe to Man
4. Scrub
5. When We Are Old And These Rejoicing Veins

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