And do you think that love itself
Edna St. Vincent Millay 1892 (Rockland) – 1950 (Austerlitz)
And do you think that love itself,
Living in such an ugly house,
Can prosper long?
We meet and part;
Our talk is all of heres and nows,
Our conduct likewise; in no act
Is any future, any past;
Under our sly, unspoken pact,
I KNOW with whom I saw you last,
But I say nothing; and you know
At six-fifteen to whom I go—
Can even love be treated so?
I KNOW, but I do not insist,
Having stealth and tact, thought not enough,
What hour your eye is on your wrist.
No wild appeal, no mild rebuff
Deflates the hour, leaves the wine flat—
Yet if YOU drop the picked-up book
To intercept my clockward look—
Tell me, can love go on like that?
Even the bored, insulted heart,
That signed so long and tight a lease,
Can BREAK it CONTRACT, slump in peace.
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 44 sec read
- 103 Views
Quick analysis:
Scheme | XAXBACDCDEEE FGF GH IIH BJJ |
---|---|
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 749 |
Words | 148 |
Stanzas | 5 |
Stanza Lengths | 12, 3, 2, 3, 3 |
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"And do you think that love itself" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 18 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem/9344/and-do-you-think-that-love-itself>.
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