First and Second Figs / Edna St. Vincent Millay

First Fig

My candle burns at both ends;
    It will not last the night;
But ah, my foes, and oh, my friends —
    It gives a lovely light!

"First Fig" read for Readings in the Dark.

Second Fig

Safe upon the solid rock the ugly houses stand:
Come and see my shining palace built upon the sand!

~~
Edna St. Vincent Millay (1892-1950)
from A Few Figs from Thistles, 1920

[Poems are in the public domain in Canada, the United States, and the European Union]

Edna St. Vincent Millay biography

"Second Fig" read for Readings in the Dark.

November's featured poem

The Penny Blog's featured poem for November 2026:

The Pity of the Leaves, by Edwin Arlington Robinson 

Vengeful across the cold November moors,
Loud with ancestral shame there came the bleak,
Sad wind that shrieked, and answered with a shriek
[...]

(read by Robert G.)

https://gdancesbetty.blogspot.com/2014/11/the-pity-of-leaves.html

Penny's Top 20 / October 2026

     

Penny's Top 20

The most-visited poems on  The Penny Blog in October 2026:

  1.  Red October, Helen Gray Cone

  2.  An October Sunset, Archibald Lampman

  3.  2 October poems, Annette Wynne

  4.  October, Florence Earle Coates

  5.  September, Annette Wynne

  6.  Early Autumn, Edward Dowden

  7.  The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock, T.S. Eliot

  8.  Camaraderie of Leaves, JD Shirk

  9.  October, Madison Cawein

10.  An October Hush, Bliss Carman

11.  Bus Ride on a Summer Night, George J. Dance

12.  Winterworld Descending, Will Dockery

13.  October, George Arnold

14.  December, John Clare

15.  Dandelions, George Sulzbach

16.  Poem for Kathy, Will Dockery

17.  Large Red Man Reading, Wallace Stevens

18.  Silk Diamond, George Sulzbach

19.  Esthetique du Mal, Wallace Stevens

20. The Lake of the Dismal Swamp, Thomas Moore

Source: Blogger, "Stats"