Edna St. Vincent Millay

Sonnet 05: If I Should Learn, In Some Quite Casual Way

IF I should learn, in some quite casual way,  
    That you were gone, not to return again—  
Read from the back-page of a paper, say,  
    Held by a neighbor in a subway train,  
How at the corner of this avenue         
    And such a street (so are the papers filled)  
A hurrying man—who happened to be you—  
    At noon to-day had happened to be killed,  
I should not cry aloud—I could not cry  
    Aloud, or wring my hands in such a place—         
I should but watch the station lights rush by  
    With a more careful interest on my face,  
Or raise my eyes and read with greater care  
Where to store furs and how to treat the hair.