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Read more poems by Edna St. Vincent Millay: Edna St. Vincent Millay Poems at Poetry X.

When we are old and these rejoicing veins
Are frosty channels to a muted stream,
And out of all our burning there remains
No feeblest spark to fire us, even in dream,
This be our solace: that it was not said
When we were young and warm and in our prime,
Upon our couch we lay as lie the dead,
Sleeping away the unreturning time.
O sweet, O heavy-lidded, O my love,
When morning strikes her spear upon the land,
And we must rise and arm us and reprove
The insolent daylight with a steady hand,
Be not discountenanced if the knowing know
We rose from rapture but an hour ago.

Added: 6 Oct 2002 | Last Read: 23 Sep 2026 4:52 AM | Viewed: 4885 times

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