Sunday, January 11, 2009

External Form

What Lips My Lips Have Kissed, and Where, and Why by Edna St. Vincent Millay

What lips my lips have kissed, and where and why,
I have forgotten, and what arms have lain
Under my head till morning; but the rain
Is full of ghosts tonight, that tap and sigh
Upon the glass and listen for reply,
And in my heart there stirs a quiet pain
For unremembered lads that not again
Will turn to me at midnight with a cry.
Thus in the winter stands the lonely tree,
Nor knows what birds have vanished one by one,
Yet knows its boughs more silent than before:
I cannot say what loves have come and gone;
I only know that summer sang in me
A little while, that in me sings no more.

This poem is about remembering someone that the speaker has lost. The speaker explains how there have been many, but that "I have forgotten". Those who have come into her life have not made a large enough impact to even have a single memory of them. However, there is one person that "stirs a quiet pain", that made such an impact that when the speaker is simply lying awake at night, everything makes her think of the one she has lost.

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