Lyric Poem · Nature

Afternoon on a Hill

by Edna St. Vincent Millay · 1917

I will be the gladdest thing

Under the sun!

I will touch a hundred flowers

And not pick one

I will look at cliffs and clouds

With quiet eyes,

Watch the wind bow down the grass,

And the grass rise.

And when lights begin to show

Up from the town,

I will mark which must be mine,

And then start down!

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“Afternoon on a Hill” by Edna St. Vincent Millay — quilloak.com/poems/afternoon-on-a-hill

Quick facts

Poem: Afternoon on a Hill
Poet: Edna St. Vincent Millay
Published: 1917
Length: 12 lines
Form: Lyric Poem, Short Poems
Themes: Nature, Happiness, Peace

Craft notes

How this poem works

Measured from the text on this page, not copied from a summary. Counts are approximate: syllables and rhymes come from the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary, which models General American English, so dialect, older pronunciation, and performance can all change what you hear.

Shape: 12 lines · 2 stanzas of 4–8 lines
Line length: Lines run 4-7 syllables (median 7). No single length dominates, which is normal once elision and contraction are in play.

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Text, source & rights

A traceable edition

Full-text display is based on the cited edition and a United States term-expiry review.

Author record: Edna St. Vincent Millay1892–1950
Source record: WikisourceAfternoon on a Hill by edna-st-vincent-millay, Wikisource transcription
Display decision: Full text · United States · reviewed 2026-07-18
Publication record: 1917
Text fingerprint: SHA-256 7fc99be28a454e2f…
Editorial handling: Whitespace and stanza breaks normalized for web display; no material wording change recorded.

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Lyric Poem Short Poems Nature Happiness Peace

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