lnhammer: the Chinese character for poetry, red on white background (Default)
lnhammer ([personal profile] lnhammer) wrote in [community profile] poetree2012-09-28 07:20 am

"What lips my lips have kissed, and where, and why," Edna St. Vincent Millay

Enough theoretical discussion -- back to the love poems. Here's one by one of the better love poets of the last century.


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 to-night, 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.


Do you have a favorite love sonnet?

---L.
bookblather: A picture of Yomiko Readman looking at books with the text "bookgasm." (Default)

Re: That depends which sort of love....

[personal profile] bookblather 2012-09-29 01:09 am (UTC)(link)
YES. I am so fond of Elizabeth Barrett Browning and her relationship with Robert Browning, and reading this poem in that context just makes it all the more lovely.
spiralsheep: Martha laughing (Martha Laughing)

Re: That depends which sort of love....

[personal profile] spiralsheep 2012-09-29 01:56 pm (UTC)(link)
\o/