Poetry Explorer


Classic and Contemporary Poetry


SONNET: 26 by EDNA ST. VINCENT MILLAY

Poet Analysis

First Line: LOVE IS NOT BLIND. I SEE WITH SINGLE EYE
Last Line: I WONDER ONLY WHY THEY PRIZE IT SO.
Subject(s): BEAUTY; LOVE - NATURE OF;

Love is not blind. I see with single eye
Your ugliness and other women's grace.
I know the imperfection of your face, --
The eyes too wide apart, the brow too high
For beauty. Learned from earliest youth am I
In loveliness, and cannot so erase
Its letters from my mind, that I may trace
Your faultless, I must love until I die.
More subtle is the sovereignty of love:
So am I caught when I say, "Not fair,"
'Tis but as if I said, "Not here - not there --
Not risen - not writing letters." Well I know
What is this beauty men are babbling of;
I wonder only why they prize it so.



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