PoemSonnet: What Lips My Lips Have Kissed
Author / PoetAdrienne Rich
TagsLoneliness, Loss, Love, Memory

What lips my lips have kissed, and where, and why,
I have forgotten, and what arms have lain
Under my head till morning; but the rain
Is full of ghosts tonight, that tap and sigh
Upon the glass and listen for reply,
And in my heart there stirs a quiet pain
For unremembered lads that not again
Will turn to me at midnight with a cry.
Thus in winter stands the lonely tree,
Nor knows what birds have vanished one by one,
Yet knows its boughs more silent than before:
I cannot say what loves have come and gone,
I only know that summer sang in me
A little while, that in me sings no more.

Adrienne Rich
Adrienne Rich
16 May 1929 - 27 Mar 2012
Region: North America
Period: Contemporary
Movement: Feminist, Postmodern
Awards: National Book Award, Pulitzer Prize for Poetry

more poems by Adrienne Rich

Poem NameTopic
Twenty-One Love Poems XXIChoice, Identity, Light
Twenty-One Love Poems XXConversation, Love, Reflection
Twenty-One Love Poems XVIIIEstrangement, Love, Miracle
Twenty-One Love Poems XVIIAccident, Forces, Love
Twenty-One Love Poems XVIConnection, Distance, Intimacy
Twenty-One Love Poems XVBeach, Circumstances, Failure
Twenty-One Love Poems XIXConnection, Love, Reality
Stepping BackwardConnection, Goodbye, Identity
Snapshots of a Daughter-In-LawAngels, Experience, Memory
Rural ReflectionsExpression, Grass, Intent

all poems by Adrienne Rich

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