Only until this cigarette is ended / Edna St. Vincent Millay

 
from Unnamed Sonnets

IV

Only until this cigarette is ended
A little moment at the end of all,
While on the floor the quiet ashes fall,
And in the firelight to a lance extended,
Bizarrely with the jazzing music blended,
The broken shadow dances on the wall,
I will permit my memory to recall
The vision of you, by all my dreams attended.
And then adieu, — farewell! — the dream is done.
Yours is a face of which I can forget
The colour and the features, every one.
The words not ever, and the smile not yet;
But in your day this moment is the sun
Upon a hill, after the sun has set.

~~
Edna St. Vincent Millay (1892-1950)
from Second April, 1921


[Poem is in the public domain in Canada, the United States, and the European Union]

Edna St. Vincent Millay biography