Poems (Millay)/Memorial to D. C.

by Edna St. Vincent Millay

Memorial to D. C.

[Vassar College, 1918]

Oh, loveliest throat of all sweet throats,
 Where now no more the music is,
With hands that wrote you little notes
 I write you little elegies!

I

Epitaph

Heap not on this mound
 Roses that she loved so well;
Why bewilder her with roses,
 That she cannot see or smell?
She is happy where she lies
With the dust upon her eyes.

II

Prayer to Persephone

Be to her, Persephone,
All the things I might not be;
Take her head upon your knee.
She that was so proud and wild,
Flippant, arrogant and free,
She that had no need of me,
Is a little lonely child
Lost in Hell—Persephone,
Take her head upon your knee;
Say to her, "My dear, my dear,
It is not so dreadful here."

III

Chorus

Give away her gowns,
Give away her shoes;
She has no more use
For her fragrant gowns;
Take them all down,
Blue, green, blue,
Lilac, pink, blue,
From their padded hangers,
She will dance no more
In her narrow shoes;
Sweep her narrow shoes
From the closet floor.

IV

Elegy

Let them bury your big eyes
In the secret earth securely,
Your thin fingers, and your fair,
Soft, indefinite-coloured hair,—
All of these in some way, surely,
From the secret earth shall rise;
Not for these I sit and stare,
Broken and bereft completely;
Your young flesh that sat so neatly
On your little bones will sweetly
Blossom in the air.

But your voice,—never the rushing
Of a river underground,
Not the rising of the wind
In the trees before the rain,
Not the woodcock's watery call,
Not the note the white-throat utters,
Not the feet of children pushing
Yellow leaves along the gutters
In the blue and bitter fall,
Shall content my musing mind
For the beauty of that sound
That in no new way at all
Ever will be heard again.
Sweetly through the sappy stalk
Of the vigorous weed,
Holding all it held before,
Cherished by the faithful sun,
On and on eternally
Shall your altered fluid run,
Bud and bloom and go to seed;
But your singing days are done;
But the music of your talk
Never shall the chemistry
Of the secret earth restore.
All your lovely words are spoken.
Once the ivory box is broken,
Beats the golden bird no more.

V

Dirge

Boys and girls that held her dear,
 Do your weeping now;
All you loved of her lies here.

Brought to earth the arrogant brow,
 And the withering tongue
Chastened; do your weeping now.

Sing whatever songs are sung,
 Wind whatever wreath,
For a playmate perished young,

For a spirit spent in death.
Boys and girls that held her dear,
All you loved of her lies here.