Second April

Edna St. Vincent Millay (1892–1950) was an American poet and playwright, one of the most celebrated poets of the 1920s. She won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 1923, the first woman to be so honoured, for The Ballad of the Harp-Weaver and other poems. Second April, her third book of poems, was published in 1921, a few years after her first success with Renascence.

The collection includes sonnets and other formal verse alongside freer pieces. Millay was unusually skilled at traditional forms, and she used them to say things that felt modern and daring in her time. Among the poems you will hear are “Spring”, “City Trees”, “Journey”, “Eel-Grass”, “Elegy Before Death” and “Ode to Silence”. Some poems are light and teasing, others are sombre, and a few are lovely descriptions that could be mistaken for a painting. It is a good introduction to a poet whose work remains popular.

Millay’s poems were written to be spoken, so they suit the voice. Whether you are new to her or already a fan, hearing the sonnets and lyrics one after another is a pleasure, and you will probably want to return to your favourites.

Forty-nine recordings, about 78 minutes in all, are the work of a LibriVox volunteer. Most poems take only a minute or two, so it is easy to listen to a handful at a time, with a favourite waiting for each return. Poems such as Spring and City Trees are brief and quick, while Ode to Silence is longer and more reflective; hearing them in the order of the volume shows how the collection moves between brightness and sorrow.