beautiful things - five
Some Edna St. Vincent Millay:
My candle's burning at both ends
It will not last the night
But ah, my foes, and oh, my friends
It gives such lovely light!
I, being born a woman, and distressed
By all the needs and notions of my kind
Am urged by your propinquity to find
Your person fair, and feel a certain zest
To bear your body's weight upon my breast
So subtly is the fume of life designed
To clarify the pulse, and cloud the mind
and leave me once again undone, possessed.
Think not for this however, the poor treason
Of my stout blood against my staggering brain
I shall remember you with love, or season
My scorn with pity. Let me make it plain,
I find this frenzy insufficient reason
For conversation when we meet again.
My candle's burning at both ends
It will not last the night
But ah, my foes, and oh, my friends
It gives such lovely light!
I, being born a woman, and distressed
By all the needs and notions of my kind
Am urged by your propinquity to find
Your person fair, and feel a certain zest
To bear your body's weight upon my breast
So subtly is the fume of life designed
To clarify the pulse, and cloud the mind
and leave me once again undone, possessed.
Think not for this however, the poor treason
Of my stout blood against my staggering brain
I shall remember you with love, or season
My scorn with pity. Let me make it plain,
I find this frenzy insufficient reason
For conversation when we meet again.