"All my thoughts are slow and brown."

— Millay, Edna St. Vincent (1892-1950)


Work Title
Date
November 1914
Metaphor
"All my thoughts are slow and brown."
Metaphor in Context
Sorrow like a ceaseless rain
    Beats upon my heart.
People twist and scream in pain, --
Dawn will find them still again;
This has neither wax nor wane,
    Neither stop nor start.

People dress and go to town;
    I sit in my chair.
All my thoughts are slow and brown:
Standing up or sitting down
Little matters, or what gown
    Or what shoes I wear.
Provenance
Reading
Citation
First published in Forum, November 1914. Millay, Edna St. Vincent. "Sorrow." Renascence and Other Poems. New York and London: Harper, 1917. p. 43. 15th printing. <Link to RPO>
Date of Entry
01/07/2010

The Mind is a Metaphor is authored by Brad Pasanek, Assistant Professor of English, University of Virginia.