64: Savage Beauty: The Life of Edna St. Vincent Millay, 2001, by Nancy
Milford (1938–)
This is a title I reviewed—
And here I think it’s best to say
I had a poor, dim attitude
About this poet named Millay*
Until and read this book—and then
I dived into Millay’s rich verse
And realized that I had been
A fool of sorts (just hear me curse!).
She’d fallen out of favor in
The academic world, so she
Had disappeared, I fear, back when
I had been studying poetry.
But as I read of her wild life—
Her gifts and, yes, of course, her fame—
Her less-than-loyal years as wife—
About that puzzling middle name**—
I realized I’d much to learn—
And so my reading years commenced—
For books remain the way to earn
The best of things, I am convinced.
And Milford’s text is full—alive—
The way I love biography—
You read the thing—and you arrive
At Truth—or close as you can be.
*1892–1950
**the “St. Vincent” part of her name—for the hospital that had saved
the life of a relative
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