Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

THE PHILOSOPHER by EDNA ST. VINCENT MILLAY

Poem Explanation Poet Analysis

First Line: AND WHAT ARE YOU THAT, WANTING YOU
Last Line: SO WISELY AND SO WELL?
Subject(s): PHILOSOPHY & PHILOSOPHERS;
And what are you that, wanting you,
I should be kept awake
As many nights as there are days
With weeping for your sake?

And what are you that, missing you,
As many days as crawl
I should be listening to the wind
And looking at the wall?

I know a man that's a braver man
And twenty men as kind,
And what you are, that you should be
The one man in my mind?

Yet women's ways are witless ways,
As any sage will tell, --
And what am I, that I should love
So wisely and so well?



Home: PoetryExplorer.net