The Philosopher

by Edna St. Vincent Millay

And what are you that, wanting you
   I should be kept awake
As many nights as there are days
   With weeping for your sake?

And what are you that, missing you,
   As many days as crawl
I should be listening to the wind
   And looking at the wall?

I know a man that's a braver man
   And twenty men as kind,
And what are you, that you should be
   The one man in my mind?

Yet women's ways are witless ways,
   As any sage will tell,—
And what am I, that I should love
   So wisely and so well?


Monadnock Valley Press > Millay