A Few Figs from Thistles: The Poetry of Edna St. Vincent Millay

By Edna St. Vincent Millay and Carl Van Doren

Edna St. Vincent Millay (1892–1950) was an American playwright, Pulitzer Prize-winning lyrical poet, and feminist activist. One of the most celebrated poets in American history, Millay is hailed as the twentieth century's most skilful sonnet writers who expertly married modern attitudes with traditional forms of expression. First published in 1920, “A Few Figs from Thistles - The Poetry of Edna St. Vincent Millay” is a collection of Millay's most notable poems, including her famous 'fig' quatrains. Contents: “First Fig”, “Second Fig”, “Recuerdo”, “Thursday”, “To the Not Impossible Him”, “Macdougal Street”, “The Singing-Woman from the Wood's Edge”, “She is Overheard Singing”, “The Prisoner”, “The Unexplorer”, “Grown-Up”, “The Penitent”, etc. A wonderful collection not to be missed by poetry lovers and those who have enjoyed other works by this seminal American poet. Other notable works by this author include: “Two Slatterns and a King” and “The Lamp and the Bell”. Ragged Hand - Read & Co is republishing this collection of classic poetry now in a new edition complete with a biography of the author by Carl Van Doren.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Ragged Hand - Read & Co.
• Release date: Aug 14, 2020
• ISBN: 9781528790574

Edna St. Vincent Millay

Edna St. Vincent Millay was born in 1892 in Rockland, Maine, the eldest of three daughters, and was encouraged by her mother to develop her talents for music and poetry. Her long poem "Renascence" won critical attention in an anthology contest in 1912 and secured for her a patron who enabled her to go to Vassar College. After graduating in 1917 she lived in Greenwich Village in New York for a few years, acting, writing satirical pieces for journals (usually under a pseudonym), and continuing to work at her poetry. She traveled in Europe throughout 1921-22 as a "foreign correspondent" for Vanity Fair. Her collection A Few Figs from Thistles (1920) gained her a reputation for hedonistic wit and cynicism, but her other collections (including the earlier Renascence and Other Poems [1917]) are without exception more seriously passionate or reflective. In 1923 she married Eugene Boissevain and -- after further travel -- embarked on a series of reading tours which helped to consolidate her nationwide renown. From 1925 onwards she lived at Steepletop, a farmstead in Austerlitz, New York, where her husband protected her from all responsibilities except her creative work. Often involved in feminist or political causes (including the Sacco-Vanzetti case of 1927), she turned to writing anti-fascist propaganda poetry in 1940 and further damaged a reputation already in decline. In her last years of her life she became more withdrawn and isolated, and her health, which had never been robust, became increasingly poor. She died in 1950.

Book preview

1.png

A FEW FIGS

FROM THISTLES

THE POETRY OF

EDNA ST. VINCENT MILLAY

By

EDNA

ST. VINCENT MILLAY

WITH A BIOGRAPHY

BY CARL VAN DOREN

First published in 1920

Copyright © 2020 Ragged Hand

This edition is published by Ragged Hand,

an imprint of Read & Co. 

This book is copyright and may not be

reproduced or copied in any way without the express permission of the publisher in writing.

British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available

from the British Library.

Read & Co. is part of Read Books Ltd.

For more information visit

www.readandcobooks.co.uk

Contents

EDNA ST. VINCENT MILLAY

By Carl Van Doren

FIRST FIG

SECOND FIG

RECUERDO

THURSDAY

TO THE NOT IMPOSSIBLE HIM

MACDOUGAL STREET

THE SINGING-WOMAN FROM THE WOOD'S EDGE

SHE IS OVERHEARD SINGING

THE PRISONER

THE UNEXPLORER

GROWN-UP

THE PENITENT

DAPHNE

PORTRAIT BY A NEIGHBOR

MIDNIGHT OIL

THE MERRY MAID

TO KATHLEEN

TO S. M.

IF HE SHOULD LIE A-DYING

THE PHILOSOPHER

FOUR SONNETS

I

II

III

IV

EDNA

ST. VINCENT MILLAY

By Carl Van Doren

The little renaissance of poetry which there have been a hundred historians to scent and chronicle in the United States during the last decade, flushed to a dawn in 1912. In that year was founded