Renascence and Other Poems

Often considered her best work, and one of the best-known American poems, the long poem "Renascence" is credited with introducing Edna St. Vincent Millay to a the broader world. Celebrated for their lyrical transcendence, Millay's poems are convey fiery romance and an invigorating spirit that are hallmarks of her writing. Published as the inaugural title in Down East Books Maine Standards series, this volume brings the classic "Renascence" and two dozen other poems back to contemporary readers.

Edna St. Vincent Millay’s childhood was a life of transient poverty. Her mother Cora, who was separated for many years from, and finally divorced in 1904, her father Henry Tolman Millay, moved Edna and her two sisters constantly from town to town during their upbringing. The family would finally settle in a small house on the property of Cora’s aunt in Camden, Maine. It was here that Edna would write some of her first lines of poetry. Edna would first gain recognition when her 1912 poem “Renascence” garnered a fourth place prize in a poetry contest for “The Lyric Year”. Edna would go on to win the highest prize for poetry, the 1923 Pulitzer Prize, for her work “The Ballad of the Harp-Weaver”. Noted for its lyrical beauty and at times controversial depiction of female sexuality, the poetry of Edna St. Vincent Millay marks some of the best of the early 20th century.