Poet and playwright Edna St. Vincent Millay was born in Rockland, Maine, on February 22, 1892. In 1912, at her mother’s urging, Millay entered her poem “Renascence” into a contest: she won fourth place and publication in The Lyric Year, bringing her immediate acclaim and a scholarship to Vassar College.
There, she continued to write poetry and became involved in the theater. She also developed intimate relationships with several women while in school, including the English actress Wynne Matthison. In 1917, the year of her graduation, Millay published her first book, Renascence and Other Poems. At the request of Vassar’s drama department, she also wrote her first verse play, The Lamp and the Bell (1921), a work about love between women.
Song of a Second April
April this year, not othe rwise Than April of a year ago, Is full of whispers,fu ll of sighs, Of dazzling mud and dingy snow; Hepaticas th at pleased you so Are here a gain, and butterflies. Ther e rings a hammering all day , And shingles lie about th e doors; In orchards near a nd far away The grey wood-p ecker taps and bores; The m en are merry at their chor es, And children earnest at their play. The large r streams run still and d eep, Noisy and swift the s mall brooks run Among the m ullein stalks the sheep Go up the hillside in the sun, Pensively,—only you are gone, You that alone I cared to keep.
