This is my favorite sonnet by my favorite poet, Edna St. Vincent Millay. I’m sharing it in honor of my eighth anniversary which was this week. Sorry, no wedding photos . . . they weren’t digital and the scanner is . . . whatever. . . . you don’t care why. 🙂
Nor slumber nor a roof against the rain;
Nor yet a floating spar to men that sink
And rise and sink and rise and sink again;
Nor clean the blood, nor set the fractured bone;
Okay I cheated. Not in the marriage. Just with this pic. I cannot find any pics of 4th anniversary. This is Thanksgiving of that year in PNG. Preg with Dylan
Even as I speak, for lack of love alone.
Fifth Anniversary in Hot Springs NC. Anyone remember the "truth" about this photo?
- It well may be that in a difficult hour,
Pinned down by pain and moaning for release,
Totally cheating now. No picture from year 6. This is a picture from PNG year 3.75. (I just like to pick photos of us together, and these are practically all we have since having kids.)
- Or nagged by want past resolution’s power,
I might be driven to sell your love for peace,
7 yrs. Back to the mountains. We like them. Did I mention?
Or trade the memory of this night for food.
It well may be. I do not think I would.
Okay, so you may be thinking “Why the heck does she like that poem and put it down with a bunch of anniversary pictures?”
Well, I like the poem because I feel it reflects the truth of “true” love relationships.
Love does not, in fact, accomplish the practical necessities of life, and yet, we are all desperate–even dying–for it.
Millay goes on to say that she might be driven, in some desperate situation, to sell or trade love for relief from pain, peace, or food. But she ultimately concludes that she doesn’t think that even in those conditions she would trade it.
I do not think I would either.
Moreover, I will not. 😉 That’s what vows are, promises that affirm our thoughts. We commit to doing the irrational, love, even when it defies reason to do so.
I love you J!
(Big surprise I took the irrational action, right? :))
The Truth of love and yet we wouldn’t give it up. So thats pretty great. After everything Neil and I have been through, I’m glad he’s the one who loves me and I’m the one who gets to love him…
thanks for the literary treat…always good to get a little more than green eggs and ham in my week! I found it online and printed it out. makes me feel smart! I needed that this week…
I L-O-V-E this post. And I was cracking up at fat Katrina and Jeremy in Anniversary picture 3 (fat being an extremely relative term) compared to gaunt stick figure K&J post-PNG-hill-decathlon climb at year 3.75