| Edna St. Vincent Millay (1892–1950). Renascence and Other Poems. 1917. |
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| 22. “If I should learn, in some quite casual way” |
| | | Sonnet V |
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| IF I should learn, in some quite casual way, | |
| That you were gone, not to return again— | |
| Read from the back-page of a paper, say, | |
| Held by a neighbor in a subway train, | |
| How at the corner of this avenue | 5 |
| And such a street (so are the papers filled) | |
| A hurrying man—who happened to be you— | |
| At noon to-day had happened to be killed, | |
| I should not cry aloud—I could not cry | |
| Aloud, or wring my hands in such a place— | 10 |
| I should but watch the station lights rush by | |
| With a more careful interest on my face, | |
| Or raise my eyes and read with greater care | |
| Where to store furs and how to treat the hair. | |
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