Dearest Friends

Welcome back to our Friday Note – our weekly collection of writerly thoughts. 

Observing

This week marks the anniversary of the death of Edna St. Vincent Millay (22 February 1892 – 19 October 1950).

Millay was a prolific poet and playwright who first found acclaim when her poem “Renascence” earned fourth place in a poetry contest in 1912.

She went on to publish poems in magazines such as Vanity Fair, write short stories under the nom de plume of Nancy Boyd, and win the Pullitzer Prize for poetry in 1923 for The Ballad of the Harp-Weaver.

Watching

Johnny Cash was so inspired by The Ballad of the Harp-Weaver that he included a recording of the poem on his first Christmas album.

Watch: Johnny Cash recite The Ballad of the Harp-Weaver on YouTube. 

Writing

From Fleetwood Mac’s Dragonfly to Arctic Monkeys’ I Wanna Be Yours, some poem lyrics lend themselves to songs. But what about the other way around?

Can you pilfer a poignant line or two from a song and use that as the starting point for a piece of writing?