My Candle Burns at Both Ends

Edna St. Vincent Millay has been one of my favorite poets since I discovered her in English class long ago.

She was ahead of her time with her feminist views. Her work is highly emotional and touches something deep within one's soul.

She came to mind recently when I wrote about Public Domain Day (January 1st of each year).

Her book, The Ballad of the Harp Weaver, won her a Pulitzer Prize in 1923, and this year works from 1923 entered the public domain.

Perhaps "Renascence," which was in The Ballad of the Harp Weaver was one of her best known poems in which she coined the popular phrase, "My candle burns at both ends."

From the day I first read that line, it spoke to me. Indeed, I think I've spent most of my life with my candle burning at both ends—getting up early, working late, working too hard and leaving too little time to "stop and smell the roses."

When I began writing for publishing, I came across something she said. "It is not true that life is one damn thing after another—it is the same damn thing over and over."

Takeaway Truth

That sentence seems to describe the last few years of my life.