First Fig (Edna St. Vincent Millay)

Hehe. Her name is practically as long as the poem. This is one of the few poems that has transcended academia and filtered through becoming a common expression for everyone. I don't know why it's titled First Fig, but who doesn't know what the phrase to burn your candle at both ends means? And who would have suspected it derives from this small piece?

So, yeah, work real hard - and you can't maintain that pace, but while you are, you can accomplish sooo much.

Uh huh. Nods. That's what I take that idiom to mean, at least. I've got to run, but isn't it great that a poem written last century (I was about to write this century - sheesh, it's been ten years) is so entrenched in the common vernacular?

Favorite line: "My candle burns at both ends;/It will not last the night"