Edna St. Vincent Millay's "Recuerdo" is a joyful celebration of life's simple pleasures. The poem describes two friends (or, perhaps, lovers) having a wonderful time riding a ferry back and forth, eating fruit, and gazing up at the moon. Through its exuberant depiction of what appears, on its surface, to be a relatively ordinary night, the poem suggests that the best things in life don't cost much—and that good company can transform a mundane night into something to remember. The poem appeared in Millay's 1920 collection A Few Figs from Thistles and was reportedly inspired by a night Millay spent with her friend and fellow poet Salomón de la Selva riding New York's Staten Island ferry.
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The Full Text of “Recuerdo”
1We were very tired, we were very merry—
2We had gone back and forth all night on the ferry.
3It was bare and bright, and smelled like a stable—
4But we looked into a fire, we leaned across a table,
5We lay on a hill-top underneath the moon;
6And the whistles kept blowing, and the dawn came soon.
7We were very tired, we were very merry—
8We had gone back and forth all night on the ferry;
9And you ate an apple, and I ate a pear,
10From a dozen of each we had bought somewhere;
11And the sky went wan, and the wind came cold,
12And the sun rose dripping, a bucketful of gold.
13We were very tired, we were very merry,
14We had gone back and forth all night on the ferry.
15We hailed, "Good morrow, mother!" to a shawl-covered head,
16And bought a morning paper, which neither of us read;
17And she wept, "God bless you!" for the apples and pears,
18And we gave her all our money but our subway fares.
The Full Text of “Recuerdo”
1We were very tired, we were very merry—
2We had gone back and forth all night on the ferry.
3It was bare and bright, and smelled like a stable—
4But we looked into a fire, we leaned across a table,
5We lay on a hill-top underneath the moon;
6And the whistles kept blowing, and the dawn came soon.
7We were very tired, we were very merry—
8We had gone back and forth all night on the ferry;
9And you ate an apple, and I ate a pear,
10From a dozen of each we had bought somewhere;
11And the sky went wan, and the wind came cold,
12And the sun rose dripping, a bucketful of gold.
13We were very tired, we were very merry,
14We had gone back and forth all night on the ferry.
15We hailed, "Good morrow, mother!" to a shawl-covered head,
16And bought a morning paper, which neither of us read;
17And she wept, "God bless you!" for the apples and pears,
18And we gave her all our money but our subway fares.
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“Recuerdo” Summary
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“Recuerdo” Themes
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The Beauty and Power of Companionship
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Love vs. Material Wealth
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Line-by-Line Explanation & Analysis of “Recuerdo”
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Lines 1-3
We were very tired, we were very merry—
We had gone back and forth all night on the ferry.
It was bare and bright, and smelled like a stable— -
Lines 4-6
But we looked into a fire, we leaned across a table,
We lay on a hill-top underneath the moon;
And the whistles kept blowing, and the dawn came soon. -
Lines 7-10
We were very tired, we were very merry—
We had gone back and forth all night on the ferry;
And you ate an apple, and I ate a pear,
From a dozen of each we had bought somewhere; -
Lines 11-12
And the sky went wan, and the wind came cold,
And the sun rose dripping, a bucketful of gold. -
Lines 13-18
We were very tired, we were very merry,
We had gone back and forth all night on the ferry.
We hailed, "Good morrow, mother!" to a shawl-covered head,
And bought a morning paper, which neither of us read;
And she wept, "God bless you!" for the apples and pears,
And we gave her all our money but our subway fares.
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“Recuerdo” Symbols
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The Newspaper
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“Recuerdo” Poetic Devices & Figurative Language
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Alliteration
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Metaphor
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Refrain
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Repetition
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Parataxis
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“Recuerdo” Vocabulary
Select any word below to get its definition in the context of the poem. The words are listed in the order in which they appear in the poem.
- Merry
- Stable
- Wan
- Morrow
- Shawl
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Form, Meter, & Rhyme Scheme of “Recuerdo”
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Form
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Meter
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Rhyme Scheme
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“Recuerdo” Speaker
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“Recuerdo” Setting
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Literary and Historical Context of “Recuerdo”
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More “Recuerdo” Resources
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External Resources
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Millay's Biography — Read more about Millay's life, courtesy of the Edna St. Vincent Millay Society.
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The Poem Out Loud — Listen to a reading of the poem brought via the Millay society.
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"The Staten Island Ferry: NYC's Famous Best-Kept Secret" — Learn more about the ferry that allegedly inspired Millay's poem.
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Millay's Legacy — Read about the ways in which Millay and her work are perceived today.
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LitCharts on Other Poems by Edna St. Vincent Millay
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