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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

SONNET by EDNA ST. VINCENT MILLAY

Poet Analysis

First Line: I ONLY KNOW THAT EVERY HOUR WITH YOU
Last Line: PROVES BUT THAT PART OF LOVE WHOSE NAME IS DEATH.
I only know that every hour with you
Is torture to me, and that I would be
From your two piognant lovelinesses free!
Rainbows, green fire, white diamonds, the fierce blue
Of shimmering ice-bergs, or to be shot through
With lightning or a sword incessantly --
Such things have beauty, doubtless; but to me
Mist, shadow, silence -- these are lovely, too.
There is no shelter in you anywhere;
Rhythmic intolerable, your burning rays
Trample upon me, withering my breath;
I will be gone, and rid of you, I swear:
To stand upon the peaks of Love always
Proves but that part of Love whose name is Death.



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