Afternoon on a Hill / Edna St. Vincent Millay

 

Afternoon on a Hill

I will be the gladdest thing
    Under the sun!
I will touch a hundred flowers
    And not pick one.

I will look at cliffs and clouds
    With quiet eyes,
Watch the wind bow down the grass,
    And the grass rise.

And when lights begin to show
    Up from the town,
I will mark which must be mine,
    And then start down!

~~
Edna St. Vincent Millay (1892-1950)
from Renascence, and other poems, 1912

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

Edna St. Vincent Millay biography