Poem by Edna St. Vincent Millay

To One Who Might Have Borne a Message

Had I known that you were going
I would have given you messages for her,
Now two years dead,
Whom I shall always love.

As it is, should she entreat you how it goes with me,
You must reply, as well as with most, you fancy;
That I love easily, and pass the time.
And she will not know how all day long between
My life and me her shadow intervenes,
A young thin girl,
Wearing a white skirt and a purple sweater
And a narrow pale blue ribbon about her hair.

I used to say to her, “I love you
Because your face is such a pretty color,
No other reason.”
But it was not true.

Oh, had I only known that you were going,
I could have given you messages for her!

1. So She Came Back
2. The Last White Sawdust
3. Siege
4. Memory of Cape Cod
5. That Love at Length Should Find

Print

1581 Views

Last Poems

To Russian version