Edna St. Vincent Millay

Edna St. Vincent Millay (1892-1950) was an acclaimed American lyrical poet and playwright, renowned for her early fame with "Renascence" and her 1923 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry—the first woman to win—for "The Ballad of the Harp-Weaver," as well as the 1943 Frost Medal for lifetime achievement. Notable works include the collections A Few Figs from Thistles featuring "First Fig" ("My candle burns at both ends"), The Harp-Weaver and Other Poems, and plays like Aria da Capo and the opera libretto The King's Henchman. A bohemian figure in Greenwich Village, she embodied feminist ideals and modernist-traditional fusion in sonnets, captivating audiences with passionate readings.