Skip to content
Linespedia

Sonnet I

Topics: classic

Thou art not lovelier than lilacs,--no,             Nor honeysuckle; thou art not more fair             Than small white single poppies,--I can bear         Thy beauty; though I bend before thee, though         From left to right, not knowing where to go,             I turn my troubled eyes, nor here nor there             Find any refuge from thee, yet I swear         So has it been with mist,--with moonlight so.         Like him who day by day unto his draught             Of delicate poison adds him one drop more         Till he may drink unharmed the death of ten,         Even so, inured to beauty, who have quaffed             Each hour more deeply than the hour before,         I drink--and live--what has destroyed some men.

AI analysis available. Enable JavaScript to interact.

About this line

"Thou art not lovelier than lilacs,--no,..."

Edna St. Vincent Millay's contribution to classic is further solidified by the brilliance found in "Sonnet I"... ### Why We Love This Line At Linespedia, we believe that poetry is the ultimate sanctuary for the soul...

Classified Tags

Related lines

"Cut if you will, with Sleep's dull knife,         Each day to half its length, my friend,--     The years that Time takes off my life,"

"Safe upon the solid rock the ugly houses stand:     Come and see my shining palace built upon the sand!"

"Love, if I weep it will not matter,             And if you laugh I shall not care;         Foolish am I to think about it,             But"

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

"Here morning in the ploughman's songs is met     Ere yet one footstep shows in all the sky,     And twilight in the east, a doubt as yet,     S"

"The Text is taken from Percy's Reliques (1765), vol. i. p. 71, 'given from two MS. copies, transmitted from Scotland.' Herd had a very similar bal"

Continue Reading

"Cut if you will, with Sleep's dull knife,         ..."

Weekly Poetic Insight

Join our literary Sanctuary

Get the most inspiring lines, poetic analysis, and secret shayaris delivered to your inbox every Sunday.