Latest / Edgar Allan Poe Poems / Renascence and Other Poems-Edna St. Vincent Millay

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Renascence and Other Poems-Edna St. Vincent Millay · Edgar Allan Poe Poems

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Poem one of Renaissance and other poems. This is a
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings were in the public domain.
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: For more information were to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org.
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: Recording by Linda Loo Renaissance and other poems by Edna
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: Saint Vincent Malay Renaissance. All I could see from where
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: I stood was three long mountains and the wood. I
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: turned and looked another way, and saw three islands in
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  Speaker 1: a bay. So with my eyes I traced the line
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: of the horizon, thin and fine, straight around till I
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  Speaker 1: was come back to where I'd started from. And all
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  Speaker 1: I saw from where I stood the three long mountains
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  Speaker 1: under wood. Over these things I could not see. These
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: were the things that bounded me, and I could touch
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: them with my hand almost, I thought, from where I stand,
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  Speaker 1: and all at once things seemed so small. My breath
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  Speaker 1: came short and scarce at all. But sure, the sky's big,
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: I said, miles and miles above my head. So here
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  Speaker 1: upon my back, I'll lie and look my fill into
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: the sky. And so I looked, and after all the
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: sky was not so very tall. The sky, I said,
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  Speaker 1: must somewhat stop. And sure enough. I see the top
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  Speaker 1: the sky, thought is not so grand. I most could
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  Speaker 1: touch it with my hand, and reaching up my hand
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  Speaker 1: to try, I screamed to feel it. Touched the sky,
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: I screamed, and lo infinity came down and settled over me.
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  Speaker 1: Forced back my scream into my chest, bent back my
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  Speaker 1: arm upon my breast, and breassing of the undefined. The
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  Speaker 1: definition on my mind held up before my eyes a
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  Speaker 1: glass through which my shrinking sight did pass, until it
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  Speaker 1: seemed I must behold immensity made manifold, whispered to me
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  Speaker 1: a word who sound deafened the air for worlds around
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  Speaker 1: and unmuffled to my ears, the gossiping of friendly spheres,
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  Speaker 1: the creaking of the tented sky, the ticking of eternity.
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  Speaker 1: I saw and heard, and knew at last the how
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  Speaker 1: and why of all things past and present and forevermore.
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  Speaker 1: The universe, cleft to the core, lay open to my
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  Speaker 1: probing sense that sickening. I would fain pluck thence, but
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  Speaker 1: could not nay, but needs must suck at the great wound,
• 3:41
  Speaker 1: and could not pluck my lips away till I had
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  Speaker 1: drawn all ven amount ah fearful pawn for my obniscience
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  Speaker 1: paid I told in infinite remorse of soul. All sin
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  Speaker 1: was of my sinning, all a toning mine and mine,
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  Speaker 1: the gall of all regrets. Mine was the weight of
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  Speaker 1: every brooded wrong, the hate that stood behind each envious
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  Speaker 1: thrust mine every greed, mine every lust, and all the
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  Speaker 1: while for every grief, each suffering. I craved relief with
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  Speaker 1: individual desire, craved all in vain, and felt fierce fire
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  Speaker 1: about a thousand people crawl, perished with each, then mourned
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  Speaker 1: for all. A man was starving in capri. He moved
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  Speaker 1: his eyes and looked at me. I felt his gaze,
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  Speaker 1: I heard his moan, and knew his hunger as my own.
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  Speaker 1: I saw at sea a great fog bank between two
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  Speaker 1: ships that struck and sank. A thousand screams. The heaven smote,
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  Speaker 1: and every scream tore through my throat. No hurt. I
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  Speaker 1: did not feel, no death that was not mine mine.
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  Speaker 1: Each last breath that cry met an answering cry from
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  Speaker 1: the compassion that was I. All suffering mine and mine
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  Speaker 1: its rod mine. Pity, like the pity of God. Ah
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  Speaker 1: awful weight infinity pressed down upon the finite me, my
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  Speaker 1: anguished spirit, like a bird beating against my lips I heard,
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  Speaker 1: yet lay the weight so close about there was no
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  Speaker 1: room for it without, And so beneath the weight lay
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  Speaker 1: I and suffer'd death. But could not die long had
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  Speaker 1: I lain thus craving death, When quietly the earth beneath
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  Speaker 1: gave way an inch by inch, so great at last
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  Speaker 1: had grown the crushing weight into the earth. I sank
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  Speaker 1: till I full six feet underground, did lie, and sank
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  Speaker 1: no more. There is no weight can follow here, however
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  Speaker 1: great from off my breast, I felt it roll, and
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  Speaker 1: as it went, my tortured soul burst forth and fled
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  Speaker 1: in such a gust that all about me swirled the
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  Speaker 1: dust deep in the earth. I rested, now, cool as
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  Speaker 1: its hand upon the brow, and soft its breast beneath
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  Speaker 1: the head of one who was so gladly dead. And
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  Speaker 1: all at once and over all, the pitying rain began
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  Speaker 1: to fall. I lay and heard each pattering hoof upon
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  Speaker 1: my lowly thatched roof, and seemed to love the sound
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  Speaker 1: far more than ever I had done before. For rain
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  Speaker 1: it hath a friendly sound to one who six feet
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  Speaker 1: underground and scarce the friendly voice or face a grave
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  Speaker 1: is such a quiet place the rain, I said is
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  Speaker 1: kind to come and speak to me in my new home.
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  Speaker 1: I would I were alive again, to kiss the fingers
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  Speaker 1: of the rain, to drink into my eyes a shine
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  Speaker 1: of every slanting silver line, to catch the freshened, fragrant
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  Speaker 1: breeze from drenched and dripping apple trees. For soon the
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  Speaker 1: shower will be done, and then the broad face of
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  Speaker 1: the sun will laugh above the rain soaked earth, until
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  Speaker 1: the world with answering mirth shakes joyously, and each round
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  Speaker 1: drop rolls twinkling from its grasp blade top. How can
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  Speaker 1: I bear it? Buried? Here? All overhead? The sky grows
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  Speaker 1: clear and blue again after the storm, A multi colored,
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  Speaker 1: multi form bloved beauty over me that I shall never
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  Speaker 1: never see again, springs silver autumn gold that I shall
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  Speaker 1: never more behold, sleeping your myriad magics through close the
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  Speaker 1: pulkard away from you, Oh God, I cried, give me
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  Speaker 1: new birth, and put me back upon the earth. A
• 9:00
  Speaker 1: sat each cloud's gigantic gourd, and let the heavy rain
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  Speaker 1: downpoured in one big torrent, set me free, washing my
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  Speaker 1: grave away from me. I ceased and threw the breathless
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  Speaker 1: hush that answered me. The far off rush of herald
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  Speaker 1: wings came whispering like music down the vibrant strings of
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  Speaker 1: my ascending prayer, and crash before the wild wind's whistling lash.
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  Speaker 1: The startled storm clouds reared on high and plunged in
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  Speaker 1: terror down the sky, and the big rain, in one
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  Speaker 1: black wave fell from the sky and struck my grave.
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  Speaker 1: I know not how such things can be. I only know.
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  Speaker 1: There came to me a fragrance such as never clings
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  Speaker 1: to aught, save happy living things, bound as of some
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  Speaker 1: joyous elf singing sweet songs to please himself, and through
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  Speaker 1: and over everything, a sense of glad awakening the grass,
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  Speaker 1: a tiptoe at my ear, whispering to me I could hear.
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  Speaker 1: I felt the rain's cool finger tips brushed tenderly across
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  Speaker 1: my lips, lay gently on my sealed side, and all
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  Speaker 1: at once the heavy night fell from my eyes, and
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  Speaker 1: I could see a drenched and dripping apple tree, a
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  Speaker 1: last long line of silver rain, a sky grown clear
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  Speaker 1: and blew again, And as I looked, a quickening gust
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  Speaker 1: the wind blew up to me and thrust into my
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  Speaker 1: face a miracle of orchard breath, and with a smile.
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  Speaker 1: I know not how such things can be I breathed
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  Speaker 1: my soul back into me. Ah Up. Then from the
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  Speaker 1: ground sprang eye and hailed the earth with such a
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  Speaker 1: cry as is not heard save from a man who
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  Speaker 1: has been dead and lives again. About the trees, my
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  Speaker 1: arms I wound like one gone mad. I hugged the ground.
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  Speaker 1: I raised my quivering arms on high. I laughed and
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  Speaker 1: laughed into the sky, till at my throat a strangling
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  Speaker 1: sob caught fiercely, and a great heart throb sent instant
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  Speaker 1: tears into my eyes. O God, I cried, No dark
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  Speaker 1: disguise can e'errow hereafter? Hide from me thy radiant identity.
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  Speaker 1: Thou canst not move across the grass, But my quick
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  Speaker 1: eyes will see thee pass, nor speak, however silently, But
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  Speaker 1: my hushed voice will answer thee. I know the path
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  Speaker 1: that tells thy way through the cool eve of every day. God,
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  Speaker 1: I can push the grass apart and lay my finger
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  Speaker 1: on thy heart. The world stands out on either side,
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  Speaker 1: no wider than the heart is wide. Above, the world
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  Speaker 1: is stretched the sky no higher than the soul is high.
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  Speaker 1: The heart can push the sea and land farther away.
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  Speaker 1: On either hand, the soul can split the sky in two,
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  Speaker 1: and let the face of God shine through. But east
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  Speaker 1: and west will pinch the heart that cannot keep them
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  Speaker 1: pushed apart, And he whose soul is flat, the sky
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  Speaker 1: will cave in on him. Bye and Bye. End of poem,
• 13:07
  Speaker 1: Ie Poem two of Renaissance and other poems. This is
• 13:24
  Speaker 1: a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain.
• 13:29
  Speaker 1: For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org.
• 13:36
  Speaker 1: Recording by Linda Leo. Renaissance and Other Poems by Edna
• 13:43
  Speaker 1: Saint Vincent Malay interim. The room is fool of you.
• 13:51
  Speaker 1: As I came in and closed the door behind me,
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  Speaker 1: all at once, something in the air and tangible yet
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  Speaker 1: stiff with meaning, struck my senses. Sick, sharp, unfamiliar odors
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  Speaker 1: have destroyed each other's rooms, dear personality. The heavy scent
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  Speaker 1: of damp venereal flowers, the very essence, hush, distilled of death,
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  Speaker 1: has strangled that habitual breath of home, whose expiration leaves
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  Speaker 1: all houses dead. And where swear I look as hideous
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  Speaker 1: change save here here. It was as if a wea
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  Speaker 1: choked gait had opened at my touch, and I had
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  Speaker 1: stepped into some long Forgod, enchanted strange sweet garden of
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  Speaker 1: a thousand years ago, and suddenly thought, I been here before.
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  Speaker 1: You are not here. I know that you are gone
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  Speaker 1: and will not ever enter here again. And yet it
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  Speaker 1: seems to me, if I should speak, your silent step
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  Speaker 1: must wake across the hall, if I should turn my head,
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  Speaker 1: that your sweet eyes would kiss me from the door.
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  Speaker 1: So short a time to teach my life its transposition
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  Speaker 1: to this difficult and non accustomed key. The room is
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  Speaker 1: as you left it, your last touch, a thoughtless pressure,
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  Speaker 1: knowing not itself as saintly hallows. Now each simple thing
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  Speaker 1: hallows and glorifies, and glows between the dusk gray fingers
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  Speaker 1: like a shielded light. There is your book, just as
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  Speaker 1: you laid it down, face to the table. I cannot
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  Speaker 1: believe that you were gone. Just then it seemed to
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  Speaker 1: me you must be here. I almost laughed to think
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  Speaker 1: how like reality the dream had been. Yet knew before
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  Speaker 1: I laughed, And so was still that book outspread, just
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  Speaker 1: as you laid it down. Perhaps you thought, I wonder
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  Speaker 1: what comes next, and whether this or this would be
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  Speaker 1: the end? So rose and left it, thinking to return.
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  Speaker 1: Perhaps that chair when you arose and passed out of
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  Speaker 1: the room, rocked silently, awhile ere it again was still
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  Speaker 1: when you were gone forever from the room. Perhaps that chair,
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  Speaker 1: stirred by your movement, rocked a little while silently to
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  Speaker 1: and fro. And here are the last words your fingers wrote,
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  Speaker 1: scrawled in broad characters, across a page in this brown book.
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  Speaker 1: I gave you. Here your hand guiding your rapid pen,
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  Speaker 1: moved up and down. Here with a looping knot, you
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  Speaker 1: crossed a t, and here another like it, just beyond
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  Speaker 1: these two eccentric eaves. You were so small and wrote
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  Speaker 1: so brave a hand. How strange it seems that, of
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  Speaker 1: all words, these are the words you chose, And yet
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  Speaker 1: a simple choice you did not know. You would not
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  Speaker 1: write again if you had known, But then it does
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  Speaker 1: not matter. And indeed, if you had known, there was
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  Speaker 1: so little time, you would have dropped your pen and
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  Speaker 1: come to me, and this page would be empty, and
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  Speaker 1: some phrase other than this would hold my wonder. Now. Yet,
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  Speaker 1: since you could not know, and did befel that these
• 18:33
  Speaker 1: are the last words your fingers wrote, there is a
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  Speaker 1: dignity some might not see in this. I picked the
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  Speaker 1: first sweet pea to day today was there an opening
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  Speaker 1: bud beside it. You left until tomorrow. Oh my long
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  Speaker 1: the things that withered, and you came not back. That
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  Speaker 1: day you filled the circle of my arms that now
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  Speaker 1: was empty, Oh my empty life. That day, that day
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  Speaker 1: you picked the first sweet pea and brought it in
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  Speaker 1: to show me. I recall with terrible distinctness, how the
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  Speaker 1: smell of your cool gardens drifted in with you. I
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  Speaker 1: know you held it up for me to see, and
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  Speaker 1: flushed because I looked not at the flower, but at
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  Speaker 1: your face. And when behind my look you saw such
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  Speaker 1: unmistakable intent, you laughed and brushed your flower against my lips.
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  Speaker 1: You were the fairest thing God ever made, I think.
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  Speaker 1: And then your hands above my heart drew down its
• 19:51
  Speaker 1: stem into a fastening. And while your head was bent,
• 19:55
  Speaker 1: I kissed your hair. I wonder if you knew beloved hands.
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  Speaker 1: Somehow I cannot seem to see them. Still, somehow I
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  Speaker 1: cannot seem to see the dust in your bright hair.
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  Speaker 1: What is the need of heaven when earth can be
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  Speaker 1: so sweet? If only God had let us love and
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  Speaker 1: show the world away, strange councelings must ink the eternal books.
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  Speaker 1: When love crossed out will bring the answer right, that
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  Speaker 1: first sweet pea, I wonder where it is. It seems
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  Speaker 1: to me I laid it down somewhere, And yet I
• 20:46
  Speaker 1: am not sure. I am not sure even if it
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  Speaker 1: was white or pink, For then was much like any
• 20:55
  Speaker 1: other flower to me, save that it was the first.
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  Speaker 1: I did not know then that it was the last.
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  Speaker 1: If I had known. But then it does not matter.
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  Speaker 1: Strange how few, after all's said and done, the things
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  Speaker 1: that are of moment few? Indeed, when I can make
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  Speaker 1: of ten small words a rope to hang the world,
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  Speaker 1: I had you, and I have you now no more?
• 21:30
  Speaker 1: There there it dangles, where's the little truths? I can
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  Speaker 1: for long keep footing under that? When it slacks syllables
• 21:42
  Speaker 1: tightened to a thought. Here, let me write it down.
• 21:49
  Speaker 1: I wish to see just how a thing like that
• 21:51
  Speaker 1: will look on paper. I hand you, and I have
• 21:58
  Speaker 1: you now no more? Oh, little words? How can you
• 22:04
  Speaker 1: run so straight across the page? Beneath the weight you bear?
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  Speaker 1: How can you fall apart whom such a theme has
• 22:14
  Speaker 1: bound together? And hereafter aid and trivial expression, that I've
• 22:20
  Speaker 1: been so hideously dignified, would God that tearing you apart
• 22:25
  Speaker 1: would tear the thread I strung you on. Would God,
• 22:30
  Speaker 1: Oh God, my mind stretches asunder on this merciless rack
• 22:34
  Speaker 1: of imagery. Oh, let me sleep awhile where I could
• 22:40
  Speaker 1: sleep and wake to find me back in that sweet
• 22:43
  Speaker 1: summer afternoon with you. Summer t is summer still by
• 22:49
  Speaker 1: the calendar. How easily could God, if he so willed,
• 22:55
  Speaker 1: set back the world a little turn or two, co
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  Speaker 1: wrecked its griefs and bring its joys again. We were
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  Speaker 1: so holy one. I had not thought that we could
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  Speaker 1: die apart. I had not thought that I could move
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  Speaker 1: and you'd be stiff and still, that I could speak
• 23:18
  Speaker 1: and you perforce be dumb. I think our heart strings
• 23:23
  Speaker 1: were like warp and wolf and some firm fabric woven
• 23:29
  Speaker 1: in and out your golden filaments and fair design across
• 23:35
  Speaker 1: my dollar fiber. And today the shining strip is rent,
• 23:42
  Speaker 1: the exquisite fine pattern is destroyed. Part of your heart
• 23:48
  Speaker 1: aches and my breast, part of my heart lies chilled
• 23:53
  Speaker 1: in the damp earth with you. I have been torn
• 23:58
  Speaker 1: into and suf or for the rest of me? What
• 24:03
  Speaker 1: is my life to me? And what am I to life?
• 24:07
  Speaker 1: A ship whose star has guttered out? A fear that
• 24:12
  Speaker 1: in the deep night starts awake perpetually to find its
• 24:17
  Speaker 1: senses strained against the taut strings of the quivering air,
• 24:22
  Speaker 1: waiting the return of some dreadcoord Dark, Dark is all
• 24:30
  Speaker 1: I find for metaphor all else were contrast, Save that contrast,
• 24:38
  Speaker 1: wall is down, and all opposed things flowed together into
• 24:43
  Speaker 1: a vast monotony, where night and day and frost and thaw,
• 24:50
  Speaker 1: and death and life are synonyms. What now? What now?
• 24:57
  Speaker 1: To me? Are all the jabbering birds and foolish flowers
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  Speaker 1: that clutter up the world. You were my song, Now
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  Speaker 1: that discord scream, you were my flower. Now let the
• 25:12
  Speaker 1: world grow weeds, or I shall not plant things above
• 25:17
  Speaker 1: your grave. The common balm of the conventional woe for
• 25:21
  Speaker 1: its own wound, amid sensations rendered negative by your elimination,
• 25:28
  Speaker 1: stands today certain, unmixed. The element of grief. I sorrow,
• 25:39
  Speaker 1: and I shall not mock my truth with travesties of suffering,
• 25:44
  Speaker 1: nor seek to effigy its incorporeal bulk and little, wry
• 25:49
  Speaker 1: faced images of woe. I can not call you back,
• 25:55
  Speaker 1: and I desire no utterance of my immaterial voice. I
• 26:01
  Speaker 1: cannot even turn my face this way or that and
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  Speaker 1: say my face has turned to you. I know not
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  Speaker 1: where you are. I do not know if Heaven hold you,
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  Speaker 1: or of Earth transmute body and soul you into earth again.
• 26:22
  Speaker 1: But this I know not for one second space. Shall
• 26:27
  Speaker 1: I insult my sight with visioning such as a credulous crowd,
• 26:31
  Speaker 1: so eager eyed beholds self conjured in the empty air.
• 26:37
  Speaker 1: Let the world wail, Let drip its easy tears. My
• 26:43
  Speaker 1: sorrow shall be dumb. What do I say, God, God, God,
• 26:52
  Speaker 1: pity me my gone mad? That I should spit upon
• 26:56
  Speaker 1: a rosary, my become so shrunken would to God? I
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  Speaker 1: too might feel that frenzied faith whose touch makes temporal
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  Speaker 1: the most endearing grief, though it must walk awhile as
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  Speaker 1: is its wont was wild, lamenting, what I too might
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  Speaker 1: weep or weeps the world and hangs its piteous wreaths
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  Speaker 1: for its new death. Not truth, but faith it is
• 27:29
  Speaker 1: that keeps the world alive. If all at one's faith
• 27:33
  Speaker 1: would a slacken, that unconscious faith, which must I know
• 27:38
  Speaker 1: yet be the corner stone of all believing, Birds now
• 27:43
  Speaker 1: flying fearless across would drop and terror to the earth.
• 27:49
  Speaker 1: Fishes would drown, and the all governing rings would tangle
• 27:54
  Speaker 1: in the frantic hands of God, and the world's gallop
• 27:59
  Speaker 1: headlong to destruction. How God, I see it now, and
• 28:05
  Speaker 1: my sick brain staggers and swoons. How often over me
• 28:11
  Speaker 1: flashes this breathlessness of sudden sight, in which I see
• 28:15
  Speaker 1: the universe enrolled before me like a scroll, and read
• 28:20
  Speaker 1: thereon chaos and doom, where helpless planets roll dizzily round
• 28:28
  Speaker 1: and round and round and round, like tops across a table,
• 28:34
  Speaker 1: gathering speed, with every spin to waver on the edge,
• 28:39
  Speaker 1: one instant looking over, and the next to shudder and
• 28:45
  Speaker 1: lurch forward out of sight. Ah, I am worn out.
• 28:52
  Speaker 1: I am wearied out. It is too much. I am
• 28:56
  Speaker 1: but flesh and blood, and I must sleep. Though you
• 29:01
  Speaker 1: were dead again, I am but flesh and blood, and
• 29:07
  Speaker 1: I must sleep. End of poem, Poem three of Renaissance
• 29:26
  Speaker 1: and other poems. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox
• 29:32
  Speaker 1: recordings are in the public domain. For more information or
• 29:36
  Speaker 1: to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org. Recording by Linda Leo.
• 29:45
  Speaker 1: Renaissance and other poems by Edna Saint Vincent Malay A
• 29:52
  Speaker 1: suicide curse thee life I will live with thee no
• 29:57
  Speaker 1: more thou hast mocked me, starv'd me, beat my body
• 30:02
  Speaker 1: sore and all for a pledge that was not pledg'd
• 30:06
  Speaker 1: by me. I have kiss'd thy crost, and eaten sparingly
• 30:11
  Speaker 1: that I might eat again, and met thy sneers with
• 30:15
  Speaker 1: deprecations and thy blows, with tears ay from thy glutted lash,
• 30:22
  Speaker 1: glad crawled away as if spent passion were a holiday.
• 30:28
  Speaker 1: And now I go. Nor threat nor easy vow of
• 30:32
  Speaker 1: tardy kindness can avail THEE now with me, whence fear
• 30:36
  Speaker 1: and faith alike are flown lonely. I came, and I
• 30:41
  Speaker 1: depart alone, and know not where nor unto whom I go,
• 30:47
  Speaker 1: but that thou canst not follow me. I know thus
• 30:52
  Speaker 1: I to life and ceased. But through my brain my
• 30:56
  Speaker 1: thought ran still until I spake again. Ah, But I
• 31:02
  Speaker 1: go not as I came. No trace is mine to
• 31:06
  Speaker 1: bear away of that old grace I brought. I had
• 31:10
  Speaker 1: been heated in thy fires, bent by thy hands, fashion,
• 31:14
  Speaker 1: did thy desires. Thy mark is on me. I am
• 31:18
  Speaker 1: not the same, nor ever more shall be as when
• 31:22
  Speaker 1: I came. Ashes am I of all that once I
• 31:26
  Speaker 1: seemed in me, all sunk that left, and all that
• 31:31
  Speaker 1: dreamed is wakeful for alarm. Oh, shame to THEE for
• 31:37
  Speaker 1: the ill change that thou hast wrought in me, who
• 31:40
  Speaker 1: laughed no more, nor lift my throat to sing ah live.
• 31:46
  Speaker 1: I would have been a pleasant thing to have about
• 31:48
  Speaker 1: the house when I was grown, if thou haddest left
• 31:52
  Speaker 1: my little joys alone. I asked of THEE no favor
• 31:57
  Speaker 1: save this one, that thou wouldst leave me playing in
• 32:00
  Speaker 1: the sun. And this thou didst deny, calling my name
• 32:06
  Speaker 1: insistently until I rose and came. I saw the sun
• 32:11
  Speaker 1: no more. It were not well. So long on these
• 32:15
  Speaker 1: unpleasant thoughts to dwell. Need I arise tomorrow and renew
• 32:20
  Speaker 1: again my hated tasks. But I am through with all
• 32:23
  Speaker 1: things save my thoughts and this one night, So that
• 32:28
  Speaker 1: in truth I seem already quite free and remote from THEE.
• 32:33
  Speaker 1: I feel no haste and no reluctance to depart. I
• 32:38
  Speaker 1: taste merely with thoughtful mien and unknown draft that in
• 32:43
  Speaker 1: a little while I shall have quothed. Thus I to
• 32:50
  Speaker 1: life and ceased and slightly smiled, looking at nothing, and
• 32:56
  Speaker 1: my thin dreams filed before me one by one, till
• 32:59
  Speaker 1: one once again I set new words unto an old refrain, treasure,
• 33:06
  Speaker 1: as thou hast that never have been mine. Warm lights
• 33:10
  Speaker 1: in many a secret chamber, shine of thy gaunt house,
• 33:14
  Speaker 1: and gusts of song have blown like blossoms out to
• 33:17
  Speaker 1: me that sat alone, And I have waited well for
• 33:21
  Speaker 1: thee to show if any share were mine. And now
• 33:24
  Speaker 1: I go nothing, I leave, and if I ought attain,
• 33:30
  Speaker 1: I shall but come into my own again. Thus I
• 33:35
  Speaker 1: delive and ceased, and spake no more. But turning straightway,
• 33:41
  Speaker 1: saw a certain door in the rear wall. Heavy it was,
• 33:46
  Speaker 1: and low and dark, away by which none errow would
• 33:50
  Speaker 1: go that other exit had, and never knock was heard,
• 33:55
  Speaker 1: thereat bearing a curious lock. Some chance had shown me
• 33:59
  Speaker 1: for fashion faultily where life held content, the useless key
• 34:06
  Speaker 1: and gray, coarse hinges, thick and rough with rust, whose
• 34:10
  Speaker 1: sudden voice across the silence must, I knew, be harsh
• 34:15
  Speaker 1: and horrible to hear a strange door, ugly like a dwarf.
• 34:22
  Speaker 1: So near I came, I felt upon my feet the
• 34:25
  Speaker 1: chill of acid wind creeping across the sill. So stood
• 34:31
  Speaker 1: long time, till over me at last came weariness, and
• 34:36
  Speaker 1: all things other passed to make it room. The still
• 34:41
  Speaker 1: night drifted deep like snow about me, and I longed
• 34:46
  Speaker 1: for sleep, But suddenly, marking the morning hour bade the
• 34:52
  Speaker 1: deep throated bell within the tower startled. I raised my head,
• 34:58
  Speaker 1: and with a shout they hold upon the latch, and
• 35:02
  Speaker 1: was without ah long forgotten, well remembered road, leading me
• 35:10
  Speaker 1: back into my old abode, my father's house. There in
• 35:15
  Speaker 1: the night I came and found them feasting, and all
• 35:20
  Speaker 1: things the same as they had been before. A splendor
• 35:24
  Speaker 1: hung upon the walls, and such sweet songs were sung,
• 35:28
  Speaker 1: as echoing out a very long ago had called me
• 35:32
  Speaker 1: from the house of life. I know so fair their
• 35:37
  Speaker 1: raiment shone. I looked in shame on the unlovely garb
• 35:40
  Speaker 1: in which I came, Then, straightway at my hesitancy, mocked.
• 35:46
  Speaker 1: It is my father's house, I said, and knocked, and
• 35:51
  Speaker 1: the door opened to the shining crowd, tattered and dark.
• 35:56
  Speaker 1: I entered like a cloud, seeing no face, But it
• 36:00
  Speaker 1: is to him, I crept, and Father I cried and
• 36:05
  Speaker 1: clasped his knees and wept. Ah days of joy that followed.
• 36:11
  Speaker 1: All alone. I wandered through the house, my own, my own,
• 36:16
  Speaker 1: my own, to touch my own to taste and smell
• 36:20
  Speaker 1: all I had lacked so long and loved so well.
• 36:25
  Speaker 1: None shook me out of sleep, nor hushed my song,
• 36:30
  Speaker 1: nor called me in from the sunlight. All day long,
• 36:35
  Speaker 1: I know not when the wonder came to me of
• 36:38
  Speaker 1: what my father's business might be, and whither fared on
• 36:42
  Speaker 1: what errands bent the tall and gracious messengers he sent.
• 36:48
  Speaker 1: Yet one day with no song, from dawn till night. Wondering,
• 36:53
  Speaker 1: I sat and watched them out of sight. And the
• 36:56
  Speaker 1: next day I called, and on the third as them
• 37:00
  Speaker 1: if I might go, but no one heard. Then, sick
• 37:05
  Speaker 1: with longing, I arose at last and went unto my
• 37:09
  Speaker 1: father in that vast chamber, wherein he, for so many
• 37:14
  Speaker 1: years has sat, surrounded by his charts and spheres. Father,
• 37:20
  Speaker 1: I said, Father, I cannot play the harp that thou
• 37:23
  Speaker 1: didst give me. And all day I sit in idleness,
• 37:27
  Speaker 1: while to and fro about me, thy serene grave servants go,
• 37:32
  Speaker 1: And I am weary if my lonely ease better a
• 37:36
  Speaker 1: perilous journey oversees away from thee than this the life
• 37:40
  Speaker 1: I lead. To sit all day in the sunshine like
• 37:44
  Speaker 1: a weed that grows to not. I love THEE more
• 37:48
  Speaker 1: than they who serve THEE most. It serves THEE in
• 37:51
  Speaker 1: no way. Ather I beg of THEE. A little task
• 37:56
  Speaker 1: to dignify my days tis all I I ask. Forever,
• 38:02
  Speaker 1: But forever this denied, I perish child. My father's voice replied,
• 38:12
  Speaker 1: all things I fancy hath desired of me, thou hast received.
• 38:17
  Speaker 1: I have prepared for THEE within my house, the spacious chamber,
• 38:21
  Speaker 1: where our delicate things to handle and to wear. And
• 38:25
  Speaker 1: all these things are thine. Dost thou love song, My
• 38:30
  Speaker 1: minstrel shall attend THEE all day long, or sigh for flowers.
• 38:36
  Speaker 1: My fairest gardens stand open as fields to THEE on
• 38:40
  Speaker 1: every hand, and all thy days this sword shall hold
• 38:44
  Speaker 1: the same. Oh, pleasure, shalt thou laugh that thou shalt name.
• 38:49
  Speaker 1: But as for task, he smiled and shook his head.
• 38:54
  Speaker 1: Thou haddest thy task and laidst it by, he said.
• 39:01
  Speaker 1: End of poem, Poem four of Renaissance, and other poems.
• 39:19
  Speaker 1: This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in
• 39:23
  Speaker 1: the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please
• 39:28
  Speaker 1: visit LibriVox dot org. Recording by Linda Leo Renaissance and
• 39:36
  Speaker 1: other poems by Edna Saint Vincent Malay. God's World a world.
• 39:44
  Speaker 1: I cannot hold thee close enough, Thy winds, thy wide
• 39:49
  Speaker 1: gray skies, thy mists that roll and rise, thy woods
• 39:54
  Speaker 1: this autumn day that ache and sack, and all but
• 39:59
  Speaker 1: cry with color, that gaunt, crack, to crush, to lift
• 40:05
  Speaker 1: the lean of that black block world, World, I cannot
• 40:10
  Speaker 1: get THEE close enough. Long have I known a glory
• 40:15
  Speaker 1: in it all, but never knew I this here, Such
• 40:20
  Speaker 1: a passion is as stretcheth me apart. Lord, I do
• 40:25
  Speaker 1: fear Thou's me. The world too beautiful this year my
• 40:30
  Speaker 1: soul is all but out of me. Let fall, no
• 40:33
  Speaker 1: burning leaves, prithee, Let no bird call. End of poem,
• 40:47
  Speaker 1: Poem five of Renaissance and other poems. This is a
• 40:52
  Speaker 1: LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain.
• 40:57
  Speaker 1: For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org.
• 41:04
  Speaker 1: Recording by Linda Loo. Renaissance and other poems by Edna
• 41:11
  Speaker 1: Saint Vincent Malay. Afternoon on a hill, I will be
• 41:18
  Speaker 1: the gladdest thing under the sun. I will touch a
• 41:22
  Speaker 1: hundred flowers and not pick one. I will look at
• 41:26
  Speaker 1: cliffs and clouds with quiet eyes, watch the wind bowed
• 41:31
  Speaker 1: down the grass, and the grass rise. And when lights
• 41:36
  Speaker 1: begin to show up from the town, I will mark
• 41:41
  Speaker 1: which must be mine, and then start down. End of poem,
• 41:52
  Speaker 1: Poem six of Renaissance and other poems. This is the
• 41:57
  Speaker 1: LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain.
• 42:03
  Speaker 1: For more information or to volunteer, please visit librifox dot org.
• 42:10
  Speaker 1: Recording by Linda Lo Renaissance and Other Poems by Edna
• 42:16
  Speaker 1: Saint Vincent Malay Sorrow Sorrow like a ceaseless rain beats
• 42:26
  Speaker 1: upon my heart. People twist and scream and pain down
• 42:32
  Speaker 1: will find them still again. This is neither wax nor way,
• 42:38
  Speaker 1: neither stop nor start. People dress and go to town.
• 42:44
  Speaker 1: I sit in my chair. All my thoughts are slow
• 42:49
  Speaker 1: and brown. Standing up or sitting down little matters all
• 42:55
  Speaker 1: what gowon or what shoes I wear? And the poem
• 43:04
  Speaker 1: Poem seven of Renaissance and other poems. This is the
• 43:10
  Speaker 1: LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain.
• 43:15
  Speaker 1: For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org.
• 43:22
  Speaker 1: Recording by Linda Loo, Renaissance and other poems by Edna
• 43:29
  Speaker 1: Saint Vincent Malay Tavern. I'll keep a little tavern below
• 43:37
  Speaker 1: the high hills crest, wherein all gray eyed people may
• 43:42
  Speaker 1: set them down and rest. There shall be plates of
• 43:46
  Speaker 1: plenty and mogs to melt the chill of all the
• 43:51
  Speaker 1: gray eyed people who happen up the hill. Their sound
• 43:57
  Speaker 1: will sleep the traveler and dream his journey's end, But
• 44:03
  Speaker 1: I will rouse at midnight. The falling fire to ten
• 44:09
  Speaker 1: Ay tis a curious fancy. But all the good I
• 44:13
  Speaker 1: know was taught me out of two gray eyes a
• 44:18
  Speaker 1: long time ago. End of poem, Poem eight of Renaissance
• 44:30
  Speaker 1: and other poems. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox
• 44:36
  Speaker 1: recordings are in the public domain. For more information or
• 44:40
  Speaker 1: to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org. Recording by Linda Leo.
• 44:49
  Speaker 1: Renaissance and other poems by Edna St. Vincent Malay, Ashes
• 44:56
  Speaker 1: of Life. Love has gone and left me. The days
• 45:01
  Speaker 1: are all alike. Eat I must and sleep I will.
• 45:06
  Speaker 1: Would that night we're here, ah to lie awake and
• 45:10
  Speaker 1: hear the slow hour strike, Would that it were day again,
• 45:15
  Speaker 1: was twilight near? Love has gone and left me, and
• 45:21
  Speaker 1: I don't know what to do. This or that or
• 45:25
  Speaker 1: what you will is all the same to me. But
• 45:29
  Speaker 1: all the things that I begin I leave before I'm through.
• 45:34
  Speaker 1: There's little use in anything. As far as I can see,
• 45:39
  Speaker 1: Love is gone and left me. The neighbors knock and borrow.
• 45:45
  Speaker 1: Life goes on forever like the gnawing of a mouse.
• 45:50
  Speaker 1: And to morrow and to morrow, and to morrow and
• 45:53
  Speaker 1: to morrow. There's this little street and this little house.
• 46:01
  Speaker 1: End of poem, Poem nine of Renaissance and other poems.
• 46:13
  Speaker 1: This is the LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in
• 46:17
  Speaker 1: the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please
• 46:22
  Speaker 1: visit LibriVox dot org. Recording by Linda Loo. Renaissance and
• 46:30
  Speaker 1: other poems by Edna Saint Vincent Malay. The little Ghost.
• 46:38
  Speaker 1: I knew her for a little ghost that in my
• 46:42
  Speaker 1: garden walked. The wall is high, higher than most, and
• 46:47
  Speaker 1: the green gate was locked. And yet I did not
• 46:51
  Speaker 1: think of that till after she was gone. I knew
• 46:55
  Speaker 1: her by the broad white hat, all ruffled she had of,
• 47:00
  Speaker 1: by the dear ruffles round her feet, by her small
• 47:04
  Speaker 1: hands that hung in their lace midst austere and sweet
• 47:09
  Speaker 1: her gowns white folds among I watched to see if
• 47:13
  Speaker 1: she would stay, what she would do, And oh, she
• 47:17
  Speaker 1: looked as if she liked the way I let my
• 47:20
  Speaker 1: garden grow. She bent above my favorite mint with a
• 47:25
  Speaker 1: conscious garden grace. She smiled and smiled. There was no
• 47:30
  Speaker 1: hint of sadness in her face. She held her gown
• 47:35
  Speaker 1: on either side to let her slippers show. And up
• 47:39
  Speaker 1: the walk she went with pride, the way great ladies go,
• 47:44
  Speaker 1: and where the wall is built anew and is of
• 47:48
  Speaker 1: ivy bare. She paused, then opened and passed through a
• 47:54
  Speaker 1: gate that once was there. End upon poem ten of
• 48:05
  Speaker 1: Renaissance and other poems. This is a LibriVox recording. All
• 48:11
  Speaker 1: LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information
• 48:15
  Speaker 1: or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org. Recording by
• 48:22
  Speaker 1: Linda Leo. Renaissance and other poems by Edna Saint Vincent
• 48:29
  Speaker 1: Malay Kin to Sorrow and my kin to sorrow, that
• 48:36
  Speaker 1: so oft falls the knocker of my door, neither loud
• 48:41
  Speaker 1: nor soft, but as long accustomed under sorrow's hand. Maracolds
• 48:47
  Speaker 1: around the step, and Rosemary stand, And then comes sorrow.
• 48:54
  Speaker 1: And what do sorrow, Care for the rosemary or the
• 48:58
  Speaker 1: miracles there? And my kin to sorrow? Are we kin
• 49:05
  Speaker 1: that's so oft upon my door. Oh come in end
• 49:12
  Speaker 1: of poem. End of poem, Poem eleventh of Renaissance and
• 49:24
  Speaker 1: other poems. This is the LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings
• 49:30
  Speaker 1: are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer,
• 49:35
  Speaker 1: please visit LibriVox dot org. Recording by Linda Leo. Renaissance
• 49:43
  Speaker 1: and other poems by Edna Saint Vincent Malay. Three songs
• 49:50
  Speaker 1: of Shattering. One the first rose on my rose tree budded, bloomed,
• 49:59
  Speaker 1: and and shattered during sad days when to me nothing mattered.
• 50:07
  Speaker 1: Grief of grief has drained me clean. Still it seems
• 50:11
  Speaker 1: a pity no one saw, and must have been very pretty. Two.
• 50:20
  Speaker 1: Let the little birds sing, Let the little lambs play.
• 50:25
  Speaker 1: Spring is here, and so tis spring, but not in
• 50:29
  Speaker 1: the old way. I recall a place where a plum
• 50:33
  Speaker 1: tree grew. There you lifted up your face, and blossoms
• 50:38
  Speaker 1: covered you. The little birds sing, and the little lambs play.
• 50:44
  Speaker 1: Spring is here, and so tis spring, but not in
• 50:48
  Speaker 1: the old way. Three. All the dog wood blossoms are
• 50:55
  Speaker 1: underneath the tree air, spring was going. Ah, spring is gone.
• 51:02
  Speaker 1: There comes no summer to the like of you and me.
• 51:05
  Speaker 1: Blossom times early, but no fruit sets on. All the
• 51:11
  Speaker 1: dog wood blossoms are underneath the tree, browned at the
• 51:16
  Speaker 1: edges turned in a day, and I would with all
• 51:20
  Speaker 1: my heart. They trimmed a mound for me, and weeds
• 51:24
  Speaker 1: were tall, and all the paths that led that way.
• 51:30
  Speaker 1: End of poem. Poem twelve of Renaissance and other poems.
• 51:41
  Speaker 1: This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in
• 51:45
  Speaker 1: the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please
• 51:50
  Speaker 1: visit LibriVox dot org. Recording by Linda Leo. Renaissance and
• 51:59
  Speaker 1: other poems by Edna Saint Vincent Malay. The Shroud Death,
• 52:07
  Speaker 1: I say my heart is bowed unto thine o Mother,
• 52:13
  Speaker 1: This gown will make a shroud good as any other.
• 52:17
  Speaker 1: I that would not wait to wear my own bridal
• 52:21
  Speaker 1: things in a dress dark as my hair made my
• 52:25
  Speaker 1: answerings I to night that till he came, could not
• 52:32
  Speaker 1: could not wait in a gown as bright as flame
• 52:37
  Speaker 1: held for them. The Gate Death, I say my heart
• 52:42
  Speaker 1: is bowed unto thine O mother. This red gown will
• 52:47
  Speaker 1: make a shroud good as any other. End of poem
• 52:58
  Speaker 1: Poem thirteen of Renaissance and Other Poems. This is a
• 53:04
  Speaker 1: LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain.
• 53:09
  Speaker 1: For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org.
• 53:16
  Speaker 1: Recording by Linda Loo. Renaissance and Other Poems by Edna
• 53:23
  Speaker 1: Saint Vincent Malay. The dream Love. If I weep, it
• 53:33
  Speaker 1: will not matter, And if you laugh, I shall not care.
• 53:40
  Speaker 1: Foolish am I to think about it? But it is
• 53:44
  Speaker 1: good to feel you there. Love. In my sleep I
• 53:50
  Speaker 1: dreamed of waking white and awful. The moonlight reached over
• 53:56
  Speaker 1: the floor, and somewhere, somewhere there was a shudder loose,
• 54:03
  Speaker 1: it screeched, swung in the wind, and no wind blowing.
• 54:09
  Speaker 1: I was afraid and turned to you, put out my
• 54:13
  Speaker 1: hand to you for comfort, and you were gone, cold,
• 54:20
  Speaker 1: cold as dew under my hand. The moonlight lay love.
• 54:27
  Speaker 1: If you laugh, I shall not care, But if I weep,
• 54:32
  Speaker 1: it will not matter. Ah, it is good to feel
• 54:38
  Speaker 1: you there. End of poem Poem fourteen of Renaissance and
• 54:49
  Speaker 1: Other Poems. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings
• 54:56
  Speaker 1: are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer,
• 55:00
  Speaker 1: please visit LibriVox dot org. Recording by Lindaloo Renaissance and
• 55:09
  Speaker 1: other poems by Edna Saint Vincent Malay, Indifference. I said,
• 55:18
  Speaker 1: for love was laggard. O love was slow to come.
• 55:24
  Speaker 1: I'll hear his step and know his step when I'm
• 55:28
  Speaker 1: warm in bed. But I'll never leave my pillow, though
• 55:33
  Speaker 1: there be some as would let him in and take
• 55:37
  Speaker 1: him in with tears, I said, I lay for love
• 55:44
  Speaker 1: was laggered. Oh he came, not until dawn. I lay
• 55:50
  Speaker 1: and listened for a step, and could not get to sleep.
• 55:55
  Speaker 1: And he found me at my window with my big
• 55:58
  Speaker 1: cloak on. All sorry, with the tears some folks might
• 56:04
  Speaker 1: weep and of poem poem fifteenth of Renaissance and other poems.
• 56:20
  Speaker 1: This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in
• 56:24
  Speaker 1: the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please
• 56:29
  Speaker 1: visit LibriVox dot org. Recording by Linda Leo Renaissance and
• 56:37
  Speaker 1: other poems by Edna Saint Vincent Malay. Which wife she
• 56:46
  Speaker 1: is neither pink nor pale, and she never will be
• 56:50
  Speaker 1: all mine? She learned her hands in a fairy tale,
• 56:56
  Speaker 1: and her mouth on a valentine. She has more hair
• 57:02
  Speaker 1: than she needs. In the sun tis a woe to me,
• 57:08
  Speaker 1: and her voice is a string of colored beads or
• 57:13
  Speaker 1: steps leading into the sea. She loves me all that
• 57:20
  Speaker 1: she can, and her ways to my ways resign. But
• 57:27
  Speaker 1: she was not made for any man, and she never
• 57:33
  Speaker 1: will be all mine. End of poem. Poem sixteen of Renaissance.
• 57:49
  Speaker 1: In other poems. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox
• 57:55
  Speaker 1: recordings are in the public domain. For more information or
• 57:58
  Speaker 1: to volunteer, please visit LibriVox don Ork recording by Lindaloo
• 58:07
  Speaker 1: Renaissance and other poems by Edna Saint Vincent Malay blight,
• 58:16
  Speaker 1: hard seeds of hate I planted that should by now
• 58:20
  Speaker 1: be grown rough stalks, and from thick stemens, the poisonous
• 58:27
  Speaker 1: pollen blown, and odor's rank unbreathable, from dark Corolla's throne.
• 58:36
  Speaker 1: At dawn, from my damp garden, I shook the chilly dew,
• 58:42
  Speaker 1: the thin boughs locked behind me that sprang to let
• 58:46
  Speaker 1: me through the blossoms slept. I sought a place where
• 58:53
  Speaker 1: nothing lovely grew, And there, when day was breaking, I
• 59:00
  Speaker 1: knelt and looked around. The light was near, the silence
• 59:06
  Speaker 1: was palpitant with sound. I drew my hate from out
• 59:11
  Speaker 1: my breast, then thrust it in the ground. Oh ye
• 59:16
  Speaker 1: so fiercely tended, ye little seeds of hate. I bent
• 59:22
  Speaker 1: above your growing early noon and late. Yet are ye
• 59:28
  Speaker 1: drooped and pitiful? I cannot rear ye straight. The sun
• 59:34
  Speaker 1: seeks out my garden. No nook is left and shade,
• 59:40
  Speaker 1: no mist, nor mold, nor mildew in deers on any blade,
• 59:46
  Speaker 1: sweet rains lance under every bow, Ye falter, and ye fade.
• 59:56
  Speaker 1: End of poem Poems seventeen of Renaissance and other poems.
• 1:00:07
  Speaker 1: This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in
• 1:00:11
  Speaker 1: the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please
• 1:00:16
  Speaker 1: visit LibriVox dot org. Recording by Linda Leo Renaissance and
• 1:00:24
  Speaker 1: other poems by Edna St. Vincent Malay. When the year
• 1:00:30
  Speaker 1: grows old, I cannot but remember when the year grows old.
• 1:00:39
  Speaker 1: October November, how she disliked the cold. She used to
• 1:00:47
  Speaker 1: watch the swallows go down across the sky and turn
• 1:00:53
  Speaker 1: from the window with a little sharp sigh. And often
• 1:00:59
  Speaker 1: when the brown leaves were brittle on the ground, and
• 1:01:04
  Speaker 1: the wind and the chimney made a melancholy sound. She
• 1:01:11
  Speaker 1: had a look about her that I wish I could
• 1:01:15
  Speaker 1: forget the look of a scared thing sitting in a net.
• 1:01:23
  Speaker 1: Oh beautiful at nightfall, the soft spitting snow and beautiful.
• 1:01:31
  Speaker 1: The bare boughs rubb it to and fro. But the
• 1:01:37
  Speaker 1: roaring of the fire, and the warmth of fir, and
• 1:01:43
  Speaker 1: the boiling of the kettle were beautiful to her. I
• 1:01:50
  Speaker 1: cannot but remember when the year gros old October November,
• 1:01:58
  Speaker 1: how she disliked end the poem poem eighteen of Renaissance
• 1:02:12
  Speaker 1: and other poems. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox
• 1:02:18
  Speaker 1: recordings are in the public domain. For more information or
• 1:02:21
  Speaker 1: to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org. Recording by Linda
• 1:02:28
  Speaker 1: Leo Renaissance and other poems by Edna Saint Vincent malay
• 1:02:37
  Speaker 1: sonnet one thou art not lovelier than Lilac's no or honeysuckle,
• 1:02:47
  Speaker 1: Thou art not more fair than small white single poppies.
• 1:02:52
  Speaker 1: I can bear thy beauty, though I bend before thee,
• 1:02:57
  Speaker 1: though from left to right, not knowing where to go,
• 1:03:03
  Speaker 1: I turn my troubled eyes nor here nor there find
• 1:03:08
  Speaker 1: any refuge from thee. Yet I swear so has it
• 1:03:14
  Speaker 1: been with mist, with moonlight. So like him who, day
• 1:03:20
  Speaker 1: by day, unto his drought of delicate poison, adds in
• 1:03:25
  Speaker 1: one drop more till he may drink unharmed the death
• 1:03:29
  Speaker 1: of ten. Even so and nearer to beauty, who I've
• 1:03:35
  Speaker 1: quaffed each hour more deeply than the hour before. I
• 1:03:40
  Speaker 1: drink and live what has destroyed some men. End of poem,
• 1:03:53
  Speaker 1: Poem nineteen a Renaissance. In other poems, this is the
• 1:03:59
  Speaker 1: LibriVox record. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain.
• 1:04:04
  Speaker 1: For more information or to volunteer, please visit librifox dot org.
• 1:04:11
  Speaker 1: Recording by Linda Loo Renaissance and other poems by Edna
• 1:04:18
  Speaker 1: Saint Vincent malay sonnet Too. Time does not bring. Really,
• 1:04:27
  Speaker 1: you all have lied? Who told me time would ease
• 1:04:31
  Speaker 1: me of my pain? I miss him in the weeping
• 1:04:35
  Speaker 1: of the rain. I want him at the shrinking of
• 1:04:39
  Speaker 1: the tide. The old snow smelt from every mountain side,
• 1:04:46
  Speaker 1: and last year's leaves are smoke in every lane. But
• 1:04:52
  Speaker 1: last year's bitter loving must remain heaped on my heart,
• 1:04:59
  Speaker 1: and my old thoughts abide. There are a hundred places
• 1:05:05
  Speaker 1: where I fear to go. So with his memory they bring,
• 1:05:11
  Speaker 1: and entering with relief, some quiet plays where never fell
• 1:05:16
  Speaker 1: his foot or shone his face. I say, there is
• 1:05:23
  Speaker 1: no memory of him here, And so stands tricken, so
• 1:05:30
  Speaker 1: remembering him. End of poem. Poem twenty of Renaissance and
• 1:05:45
  Speaker 1: other poems. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings
• 1:05:51
  Speaker 1: are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer,
• 1:05:56
  Speaker 1: please visit LibriVox dot org. Recording by Lindeloo Renaissance and
• 1:06:04
  Speaker 1: other poems by Edna Saint Vincent malay sonnet three. Mindful
• 1:06:13
  Speaker 1: of you the sodden earth in spring, and all the
• 1:06:17
  Speaker 1: flowers that in the springtime grow, and dusty roads and thistles,
• 1:06:24
  Speaker 1: and the slow rising of the round moon, all throats
• 1:06:30
  Speaker 1: that sing the summer through and each departing wain, and
• 1:06:37
  Speaker 1: all the nest that the bared branches show, and all
• 1:06:42
  Speaker 1: winds that, in any weather blow, and all the storms
• 1:06:48
  Speaker 1: that the four seasons bring. You go no more on
• 1:06:53
  Speaker 1: your exultant feet, uppaths it only mist and morning new
• 1:07:01
  Speaker 1: or watch the wind, or listen to the beat of
• 1:07:05
  Speaker 1: a bird's wings too, high in air to view. But
• 1:07:11
  Speaker 1: you are something more than young and sweet and fair,
• 1:07:18
  Speaker 1: and the long year remembers you. And a poem Poem
• 1:07:32
  Speaker 1: twenty one of Renaissance and other poems. This is a
• 1:07:38
  Speaker 1: LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain.
• 1:07:43
  Speaker 1: For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org.
• 1:07:50
  Speaker 1: Recording by Linda Leo. Renaissance and other poems by Edna
• 1:07:57
  Speaker 1: Saint Vincent Malay Sonnet. Four. Not in this chamber, only
• 1:08:05
  Speaker 1: at my birth, when the long hours of that mysterious
• 1:08:11
  Speaker 1: night were over and the morning was in sight, I cried.
• 1:08:19
  Speaker 1: But in strange places, step and firth I have not
• 1:08:24
  Speaker 1: seen through alien grief and earth. And never shall one
• 1:08:31
  Speaker 1: room contain me quite who, in so many rooms first
• 1:08:37
  Speaker 1: saw the light child of all mothers. Native How the
• 1:08:44
  Speaker 1: earth so is no warmth for me at any fire.
• 1:08:49
  Speaker 1: To day, when the world's fire has burned so low,
• 1:08:57
  Speaker 1: I kneel, spending my breath than vain desire at that
• 1:09:03
  Speaker 1: cold hearth, which one time roared so strong, and straightened back,
• 1:09:10
  Speaker 1: and weariness and long to gather up my little gods
• 1:09:16
  Speaker 1: and go. End of poem. Poem twenty two of Renaissance
• 1:09:29
  Speaker 1: and other poems. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox
• 1:09:35
  Speaker 1: recordings are in the public domain. For more information or
• 1:09:38
  Speaker 1: to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org. Recording by Linda Leo.
• 1:09:48
  Speaker 1: Renaissance and Other Poems by Edna Saint Vincent malay Sonnet. Five.
• 1:09:57
  Speaker 1: If I should learn in some quite casual way that
• 1:10:02
  Speaker 1: you were gone not to return again, read from the
• 1:10:07
  Speaker 1: back page of a paper, say, held by a neighbor
• 1:10:12
  Speaker 1: in a subway train, held at the corner of this
• 1:10:16
  Speaker 1: avenue and such a street. So are the papers filled
• 1:10:23
  Speaker 1: a hurrying man who happened to be you at noon
• 1:10:28
  Speaker 1: to day and happened to be killed. I should not
• 1:10:34
  Speaker 1: cry aloud. I could not cry aloud or wring my
• 1:10:40
  Speaker 1: hands in such a place. I should but watch the
• 1:10:45
  Speaker 1: station lights rush by with the more careful interest on
• 1:10:50
  Speaker 1: my face, or raise my eyes and read with greater
• 1:10:55
  Speaker 1: care where to store first and how to treat the hair?
• 1:11:05
  Speaker 1: End of poem Poem twenty three of Renaissance and Other Poems.
• 1:11:17
  Speaker 1: This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in
• 1:11:20
  Speaker 1: the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please
• 1:11:26
  Speaker 1: visit LibriVox dot org recording by Linda Leo. Renaissance and
• 1:11:34
  Speaker 1: other poems by Edna Saint Vincent Malay blue Beard, Sonnet. Six.
• 1:11:45
  Speaker 1: This door you might not open, and you did so.
• 1:11:51
  Speaker 1: Enter now and see for what light thing you are betrayed.
• 1:11:58
  Speaker 1: Here is no treasure hid, no cauldron, no clear crystal
• 1:12:05
  Speaker 1: mirroring the sought for truth, no heads, a woman slain
• 1:12:11
  Speaker 1: for greed like yours, no writhings of distress, but only
• 1:12:18
  Speaker 1: what you see. Look yet again, an empty room, copwept
• 1:12:27
  Speaker 1: and comfortless. Yet this alone, out of my life, I
• 1:12:32
  Speaker 1: kept unto myself. Last any know me quite? And you
• 1:12:39
  Speaker 1: did so profane me when you crept onto the threshold
• 1:12:44
  Speaker 1: of this room to night, that I must never more
• 1:12:48
  Speaker 1: behold your face. This now is yours. I seek another
• 1:12:56
  Speaker 1: place and a Renaissance in other poems