The Dragon-Fly (Millay, 1922)
THE DRAGON-FLY
By EDNA ST. VINCENT MILLAY
I WOUND myself in a white cocoon of singing,
All day long in the brook's uneven bed,
Measuring out my soul in a mucous thread.
Dimly now to the brook's green bottom clinging,
Men behold me, a worm spun-out and dead,
Walled in an iron house of silky singing.
Nevertheless at length, O reedy shallows,
Not as a plodding nose to the slimy stem,
But as a brazen wing with a spangled hem,
Over the jewel-weed and the pink marsh-mallows,
Free of these and making a song of them,
I shall arise, and a song of the reedy shallows!
This work is in the public domain in the United States because it was published before January 1, 1929.
The longest-living author of this work died in 1950, so this work is in the public domain in countries and areas where the copyright term is the author's life plus 73 years or less. This work may be in the public domain in countries and areas with longer native copyright terms that apply the rule of the shorter term to foreign works.
Public domainPublic domainfalsefalse