If you have not read Millay--or not read her since "forced" to in college--you are in for a treat. To my mind, no poet maps the landscapes of the heart the way she can.

I got this lovely little book in the mail today; thank you! If the opening piece is any indication of what will follow, the 'landscapes of the heart' comment is most apt...

"I screamed, and-lo!-Infinity
Came down and settled over me;
Forced back my scream into my chest,
Bent back my arm upon my breast,
And, pressing of the Undefined
The definition on my mind,
Held up before my eyes a glass
Through which my shrinking sight did pass
Until it seemed I must behold
Immensity made manifold;
Whispered to me a word whose sound
Deafened the air for worlds around,
And brought unmuffled to my ears
The gossiping of friendly spheres,
The creaking of the tented sky,
The ticking of Eternity.
I saw and heard and knew at last
The How and Why of all things, past,
And present, and forevermore.
The Universe, cleft to the core,
Lay open to my probing sense
That, sick'ning, I would fain pluck thence
But could not,-nay! But needs must suck
At the great wound, and could not pluck
My lips away till I had drawn
All venom out.-Ah, fearful pawn!
For my omniscience paid I toll
In infinite remorse of soul."
[Renascence, pg 4]