Winter Night
by Edna St. Vincent Millay
Pile high the hickory and the light
Log of chestnut struck by the blight.
Welcome-in the winter night.
The day has gone in hewing and felling,
Sawing and drawing wood to the dwelling
For the night of talk and story-telling.
These are the hours that give the edge
To the blunted axe and the bent wedge,
Straighten the saw and lighten the sledge.
Here are question and reply,
And the fire reflected in the thinking eye.
So peace, and let the bob-cat cry.
“Winter Night” was chosen as one of MHR’s first Broadside Poems, our gift to all members who support us at the Sustaining, Patron, Poetry Lover, or Pulitzer Prize Patron levels, a frameable and smartly designed printed keepsake that’s our thank you for helping us continue the valuable work of nurturing the arts and celebrating Vincent’s poetry in Rockland, Maine. This calming and well-loved poem was first collected in Millay’s 1928 volume The Buck in the Snow and Other Poems.
