Journey by Edna St. Vincent Millay - Poetry: The Best Words in the Best Order - #BlogchatterA2ZChallenge2021

 JOURNEY

EDNA ST. VINCENT MILLAY

                                                          Ipseand - WordPress.com

Ah, could I lay me down in this long grass

And close my eyes, and let the quiet wind

Blow over me - I am so tired, so tired

Of passing pleasant places! All my life,

Following Care along the dusty road, 

Have I looked back and loveliness, and sighed;

Yet at my hand an unrelenting hand

Tugged ever, and I passed. All my life long

Over my shoulder have I looked at peace;

And now I fain would lie in this long grass

And close my eyes.

Yet onward!

Cat birds call

Through the long afternoon, and creeks at dusk

Are guttural. Whip-poor-wills wake and cry,

Drawing the twilight close about their throats.

Only my heart makes answer. Eager vines

Go up the rocks and wait; flushed apple-trees

Pause in their dance and break the ring for me;

And bayberry, that through sweet bevies thread

Of round-faced roses, pink and petulant,

Look back and beckon ere they disappear.

Only my heart, only my heart responds.

Yet, ah, my path is sweet on either side

All through the dragging day - sharp, underfoot

And hot, and like dead mist the dry dust hangs - 

But far, oh, far as passionate eye can reach,

And long, ah long as rapturous eye can cling,

The world is mine: blue hill, still silver lake,

Broad field, bright flower, and the long white road

A gateless garden, and an open path:

My feet to follow, and my heart to hold.

                                                                Aimee's Victorian Armoire

The Poet: Edna St. Vincent Millay: (1892 - 1950)

Edna St. Vincent Millay is known as one of the most prominent American poets, known for both her dramatic pieces and her lyric poetry. A contemporary of Robert Frost, she was also, like him, known for her skill in writing sonnets, as also blending the modern and the traditional to create magic. Her popularity sky-rocketed further when she won the Pulitzer Prize in poetry in 1923, the first woman to do so. Her reading repertoire consisted of William Shakespeare, John Milton, William Wordsworth, Alfred Tennyson, Charles Dickens and many more such great litterateurs.

'Journey' speaks of a woman's desire to lie down, relax and let the breeze blow over her tired body. It is clear that she has never stopped her frenetic pace, because of an unrelenting hand that tugs at her own hand, not allowing her to pause.

If she were allowed a moment of rest, she would hear the different bird calls and the sound of the creek at dusk. Her heart would answer the cries of the Whip-poor-wills who herald the onset of twilight. The flowers, the roses, are personified as they turn around, beckon and then disappear. Her heart responds to all of them.

                                                                 Read and Ripe

She cannot step on the sweet path that runs along the side, but must continue along the day that drags, covered with dry, unpleasant dust. However, she discovers the power of her eyes to reach beyond the place where her body can go. Thus, the world is hers, in which she can see the beautiful blue hill, the silver lake, and a gateless garden though which she can walk along a broad path, which she can hold in her heart, and follow with her feet.

The poem lauds the power of imagination which can allow the mind to float free even when the body is unable to follow.

                                                               Poetry Foundation

This post is a part of #BlogchatterA2ZChallenge2021

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