Portrait by a Neighbor
Edna St. Vincent Millay * Track #10 On A Few Figs from Thistles
Download "Portrait by a Neighbor"
Album A Few Figs from Thistles
- #1First Fig (”My candle burns at both ends...”)
Edna St. Vincent Millay
- #2Second Fig
Edna St. Vincent Millay
- #3Macdougal Street
Edna St. Vincent Millay
- #4The Singing-Woman from the Wood’s Edge
Edna St. Vincent Millay
- #5The Prisoner
Edna St. Vincent Millay
- #6The Unexplorer
Edna St. Vincent Millay
- #7Grown-up
Edna St. Vincent Millay
- #8The Penitent
Edna St. Vincent Millay
- #9Daphne
Edna St. Vincent Millay
- #10Portrait by a Neighbor
Edna St. Vincent Millay
- #11Midnight Oil
Edna St. Vincent Millay
- #12The Merry Maid
Edna St. Vincent Millay
- #13To Kathleen
Edna St. Vincent Millay
- #14If he should lie a-dying
Edna St. Vincent Millay
- #15The Philosopher
Edna St. Vincent Millay
- #16Four Sonnets
Edna St. Vincent Millay
- #17I shall forget you presently, my dear (Sonnet XI)
Edna St. Vincent Millay
- #18I think I should have loved you presently (Sonnet IX)
Edna St. Vincent Millay
- #19Oh, think not I am faithful to a vow!
Edna St. Vincent Millay
- #20I do but ask that you be always fair
Edna St. Vincent Millay
Portrait by a Neighbor by Edna St. Vincent Millay
Performed by
Edna St. Vincent MillayAbout
Published in 1920 in A Few Figs From Thistles, this five-quatrain poem depicts the everyday life of a lady; perhaps Millay herself.
Notice how Millay titled this piece “Portrait BY a Neighbor” rather than “Portrait OF a Neighbor”–maybe she is viewing herself in her neighbor’s point of view.
Portrait by a Neighbor Annotated
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!