| Edna St. Vincent Millay (1892–1950). Renascence and Other Poems. 1917. |
| |
| 18. “Thou art not lovelier than lilacs,—no” |
| | | Sonnet I |
| |
| |
| 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, | 5 |
| 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 | 10 |
| 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. | |
| |
|
|
|
