"What Lips My Lips Have Kissed, and Where, and Why"

Thus in the 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.

🔍 Short Analysis:
This is a sonnet of memory and loss. The speaker reflects on past lovers — not in detail, but in a haze of absence. She no longer recalls their names or touches, but feels their absence like ghosts in the rain.

The rain tapping on the window becomes a symbol of haunting memory.

The tree in winter is a metaphor for aging and loneliness, stripped of the warmth and music of “summer” — a metaphor for youth and love.

The tone is wistful, sorrowful, resigned.

🧠 Why It's Powerful:
Millay reverses the typical romantic sonnet. Instead of celebrating love, she mourns the fading of passion and memory. It captures the quiet grief of time passing, especially for a woman who lived passionately and fearlessly in her youth.