To Kathleen by Edna St. Vincent Millay

Still must the poet as of old,
In barren attic bleak and cold,
Starve, freeze, and fashion verses to
Such things as flowers and song and you;

Still as of old his being give
In Beauty's name, while she may live,
Beauty that may not die as long
As there are flowers and you and song.


Notes:

The poem was addressed to Millay's younger sister Kathleen, an aspiring poet in her own right.

Source

  1. Early Poems by Edna St. Vincent Millay, edited by Holly Peppe (1998)

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