63 Portrait by Her Neighbor

Edna St. Vincent Millay

Before she has her floor swept
Or her dishes done,
Any day you’ll find her
A-sunning in the sun!

  It’s long after midnight
Her key’s in the lock,
And you never see her chimney smoke
Till past ten o’clock!

  She digs in her garden
With a shovel and a spoon,
She weeds her lazy lettuce
By the light of the moon,

  She walks up the walk
Like a woman in a dream,
She forgets she borrowed butter
And pays you back cream!

  Her lawn looks like a meadow,
And if she mows the place
She leaves the clover standing
And the Queen Anne’s lace!

 


“Portrait by Her Neighbor” by Edna St. Vincent Millay was originally published in  A Few Figs from Thistles. It is in the public domain and was accessed through Project Gutenberg at: https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/4399/pg4399.html.

License

Icon for the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License

Let's Read: A Collection of Texts for College Composition Copyright © 2021 by Edna St. Vincent Millay is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted.

Share This Book