Collected Sonnets
Registered by 
GoryDetails
of Nashua, New Hampshire USA on 2/17/2020
This Book is Currently in the Wild!
GoryDetails of Nashua, New Hampshire USA on 2/17/2020 This Book is Currently in the Wild!
1 journaler for this copy...
I got this '40s-vintage hardcover at a local Goodwill thrift shop. I recently read Bobbed Hair and Bathtub Gin, about several literary figures in the roaring 20s - including Millay, who was a lot wilder than I'd have guessed from her poems! (See also Collected Lyrics of Edna St. Vincent Millay.)
The sonnets range from fairly classical subjects and tones to very personal ones. In general I prefer the latter, like this wrenching one:
"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."
And this more breezy dismissal of a patronizing person:
"Oh, oh, you will be sorry for that word!
Give back my book and take my kiss instead.
Was it my enemy or my friend I heard,
'What a big book for such a little head!'
Come, I will show you now my newest hat,
And you may watch me purse my mouth and prink!
Oh, I shall love you still, and all of that.
I never again shall tell you what I think.
I shall be sweet and crafty, soft and sly;
You will not catch me reading any more:
I shall be called a wife to pattern by;
And some day when you knock and push the door,
Some sane day, not too bright and not too stormy,
I shall be gone, and you may whistle for me."
That's telling 'em!
The sonnets range from fairly classical subjects and tones to very personal ones. In general I prefer the latter, like this wrenching one:
"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."
And this more breezy dismissal of a patronizing person:
"Oh, oh, you will be sorry for that word!
Give back my book and take my kiss instead.
Was it my enemy or my friend I heard,
'What a big book for such a little head!'
Come, I will show you now my newest hat,
And you may watch me purse my mouth and prink!
Oh, I shall love you still, and all of that.
I never again shall tell you what I think.
I shall be sweet and crafty, soft and sly;
You will not catch me reading any more:
I shall be called a wife to pattern by;
And some day when you knock and push the door,
Some sane day, not too bright and not too stormy,
I shall be gone, and you may whistle for me."
That's telling 'em!
Journal Entry 2 by GoryDetails at LFL - High St. (1) #109391 in Dunstable, Massachusetts USA on Sunday, December 13, 2020
GoryDetails at LFL - High St. (1) #109391 in Dunstable, Massachusetts USA on Sunday, December 13, 2020
Released 3 yrs ago (12/13/2020 UTC) at LFL - High St. (1) #109391 in Dunstable, Massachusetts USA
WILD RELEASE NOTES:
Guidelines for safely visiting and stocking Little Free Libraries during the COVID-19 pandemic, from the LFL site here.I left this book in the Little Free Library on this rather foggy day; hope someone enjoys it!
[See other recent releases in MA here.]
*** Released for the 2020 What's in a Name challenge, for the embedded "Ted" in the title. ***
