• Original Text: Edna St. Vincent Millay, A Few Figs from Thistles: Poems and Sonnets (New York and London: Harper, 1922): 2-3. PS 3525 I495F4 Robarts Library.
• First Publication Date: Poetry (May 1919).
• Representative Poetry On-line: Editor, I. Lancashire; Publisher, Web Development Group, Inf. Tech. Services, Univ. of Toronto Lib.
• Edition: RPO 1998. © I. Lancashire, Dept. of English (Univ. of Toronto), and Univ. of Toronto Press 1998.

1We were very tired, we were very merry --
2     We had gone back and forth all night upon the ferry.
3     It was bare and bright, and smelled like a stable --
4     But we looked into a fire, we leaned across a table,
5     We lay on the hill-top underneath the moon;
6     And the whistles kept blowing, and the dawn came soon.

7     We were very tired, we were very merry --
8     We had gone back and forth all night on the ferry;
9     And you ate an apple, and I ate a pear,
10   From a dozen of each we had bought somewhere;
11   And the sky went wan, and the wind came cold,
12   And the sun rose dripping, a bucketful of gold.

13   We were very tired, we were very merry,
14   We had gone back and forth all night on the ferry.
15   We hailed, "Good morrow, mother!" to a shawl-covered head,
16   And bought a morning paper, which neither of us read;
17   And she wept, "God bless you!" for the apples and the pears,
18   And we gave her all our money but our subway fares.

"Recuerdo" notes

The poem starts with a smelly ferry. It smells because they still used horse-drawn carriages in the 1920's. She's been riding the ferry all night, probably slightly drunk. There were simply having cheap fun. Since they had a great time in the ferry, they gave the old lady selling papers all the apples & pears they had left.  They also gave her the rest of their money.  They were probably still drunk, don't you think?
 
 

NOTES

• Other poems by Edna St. Vincent Millay ...
• The poet's life and works ...

Composition Date:

1920.

Form:

aabbcc.

1.

The title means "memory" (Spanish).

Recuerdo

The poem starts with a smelly ferry. It smells because they still used carriages in the 1920's. Drunken people had been riding the ferry all night. There were simply having cheap fun. Since the drunken boys had a great time in the ferry, they gave an old woman all the apples, the newspaper and their money.