Happy Valentine's Day

Edna St. Vincent Millay (1892-1950) was one of the great poets of the first half of the last century. She wrote with attention to the traditional norms of poetry, but brought a modern sensibility to her work. Her poem, "Love is Not All" is a classic.

Love Is Not All

Love is not all: it is not meat or drink
Nor slumber nor a roof against the rain;
Nor yet a floating spar to men that sink
and rise and sink and rise and sink again;
Love cannot fill the thickened lung with breath,
Nor clean the blood, nor set the fractured bone;
Yet many a man is making friends with death
Even as I speak, for lack of love alone.
It may well be that in a difficult hour,
Pinned down by pain and moaning for release,
Or nagged by want past resolution's power,
I might be driven to sell your love for peace,
Or trade the memory of this night for food.
It may well be. I do not think I would.

(c) Edna St. Vincent Millay

Here's a Valentine's Day wish for all who visit this blog. Let those you love know it.