"Time Does Not Bring Relief" by Edna St. Vincent Millay

 

Time Does Not Bring Relief

Time does not bring relief; you all have lied

Who told me time would ease me of my pain!

I miss him in the weeping of the rain;

I want him at the shrinking of the tide;

The old snows melt from every mountain-side,

And last year’s leaves are smoke in every lane;

But last year’s bitter loving must remain

Heaped on my heart, and my old thoughts abide.

There are a hundred places where I fear

To go,—so with his memory they brim.

And entering with relief some quiet place

Where never fell his foot or shone his face

I say, “There is no memory of him here!”

And so stand stricken, so remembering him.

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Poem Video👇

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Who wrote the poem "Time Does Not Bring Relief"?

Edna St. Vincent Millay (February 22, 1892 - October 19, 1950)

Edna St. Vincent Millay was an American poet, playwright, political activist, and feminist. Her rebellious viewpoints were reflected in both her works and her uninhibited lifestyle involving many passing relationships with both sexes. As a well known feminist of her time, she inspired a generation of American women. She became the first female to win the Pulitzer Prize in poetry in 1923. She died from a heart attack at the age of 58 and is buried alongside her husband in Austerlitz, New York.

"Time Does Not Bring Relief" explanation

The poem tells of an emotionally hurt woman, seeking relief from heartbreak. The poem begins with the speaker complaining to the reader about their lies that time would ease her pain from the past heartbreak. Any pain she feels for her lost lover would not fade away. Rather, her longing for him is everywhere with her heart and mind obsessed with the loss, regardless of physical settings and situations.