Edna St. Vincent Millay

Sonnet V: If I Should Learn

If I should learn, in some quite casual way,
 That you were gone, not to return again—
Read from the back-page of a paper, say,
 Held by a neighbor in a subway train,
How at the corner of this avenue
 And such a street (so are the papers filled)
A hurrying man—who happened to be you—
 At noon to-day had happened to be killed,
I should not cry aloud—I could not cry
 Aloud, or wring my hands in such a place—
I should but watch the station lights rush by
 With a more careful interest on my face,
Or raise my eyes and read with greater care
Where to store furs and how to treat the hair.
Other works by Edna St. Vincent Millay...



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