Recuerdo
Two tired, merry companions ride a ferry back and forth all night, watch the sunrise, and give a woman in a shawl their fruit and nearly all their money.
Recuerdo the full poem, lines numbered
Nothing much happens: a ferry ride, some fruit, a sunrise, a newspaper nobody reads. Millay turns that one night into a memory worth keeping by repeating its refrain three times. Watch how the last stanza turns outward, from the two friends to a stranger.
The title is Spanish for “memory” or “remembrance,” and the poem is the speaker’s memory of one night spent with a companion, addressed as “you.” Each stanza opens with the same two lines: they were very tired and very merry, and they had gone back and forth all night on the ferry. In the first stanza the place is bare and bright and smells like a stable, but the two look into a fire, lean across a table and lie on the hill-top under the moon, while whistles keep blowing and dawn comes soon. In the second stanza the companion eats an apple and the speaker a pear, from a dozen of each they bought somewhere. The sky turns pale, the wind turns cold, and the sun rises “dripping, a bucketful of gold.” In the third stanza they call out “Good morrow, mother!” to a woman in a shawl and buy a morning paper that neither of them reads. The woman weeps and blesses them for the apples and pears, and they give her all their money except their subway fares.
Speaker & situation
The speaker
Narrator
An “I” who remembers the night. The speaker ate a pear (line 9) and tells the story with obvious pleasure.
You
Companion
The person who shared the night and ate an apple (line 9). The poem never says whether the two are friends or lovers.
The woman in the shawl
Stranger
A “shawl-covered head” (line 15) the pair greet as “mother.” She weeps and blesses them for the fruit (line 17), and they give her nearly all their money.
Form & sound
Line by line what each part says and does
- 1
Lines 1–6
All night on the ferry
Tired and merry, the two have ridden the ferry back and forth all night. The place is bare, bright and smells like a stable, but they look into a fire, lean across a table and lie on the hill-top under the moon while whistles blow, until dawn comes soon.
How it worksThe details are ordinary and even a little shabby, yet the pair’s happiness transforms them. The 1922 book text printed here reads “the hill-top” in line 5; Millay later revised it to “a hill-top,” the reading many anthologies print.
- 2
Lines 7–12
Fruit and sunrise
The refrain returns. The companion eats an apple and the speaker a pear, from a dozen of each bought somewhere. The sky goes pale, the wind turns cold, and the sun rises dripping, “a bucketful of gold.”
How it worksThe carelessness of “bought somewhere” matches the mood: nobody is keeping track. The sunrise metaphor makes the sun look like a bucket of gold drawn up out of the water.
- 3
Lines 13–18
The woman in the shawl
The refrain returns a third time. The pair greet a woman in a shawl with “Good morrow, mother!” and buy a paper they never read. She weeps and blesses them for the apples and the pears, and they give her all their money except their subway fares.
How it worksThe poem turns outward. The joy of the night spills over into generosity toward a stranger, and the two keep only what they need to get home. The 1922 text reads “the apples and the pears” in line 17; Millay’s later revision reads “apples and pears.”
The turn
Lines 15
Lines 1 to 14 stay with the two companions and what they see and do. In line 15 they turn to a stranger, the “shawl-covered head” they greet as “mother,” and the last stanza becomes a scene of giving. The private memory widens to include someone outside it.
Literary devices with line numbers
Refrain
Lines 1 and 2 return as lines 7 and 8 and again as lines 13 and 14. The repetition makes the night feel like one long, happy loop, much like the ferry going back and forth, and marks each stanza as a new stage of the same memory.
Polysyndeton
Line after line begins with “And” (lines 6, 9, 11, 12, 16, 17 and 18), and some lines use it twice, as in line 11. Piling up clauses joined by “and” makes the memory flow like breathless storytelling.
Metaphor
In line 12, “the sun rose dripping, a bucketful of gold,” the rising sun is a bucket of gold pulled up from the water. The image is both beautiful and homely, and it brings gold into a poem that ends with the pair giving their money away.
Sensory imagery
The poem appeals to smell (the stable smell in line 3), sight (the fire and the moon in lines 4 and 5), taste (the apple and the pear in line 9) and touch (the cold wind in line 11). The memory is kept through the senses, not through ideas.
Juxtaposition
“We were very tired, we were very merry” (line 1) joins two states that usually pull against each other. The exhaustion is part of the joy, and the refrain repeats the pairing three times.
Telling detail
In line 16 they buy a morning paper “which neither of us read.” The unread news shows how far the two are from the ordinary business of the day, lost in their own night.
Themes in Recuerdo
Simple joy
The night has no purpose and no goal: the ferry goes back and forth and never really arrives. The poem suggests that happiness can come from pure, pointless fun shared with someone.
Memory
The title names the poem as a remembrance. The refrain and the sharp sensory details show how one night can be kept whole, down to the smell of the boat and the fruit they ate.
Generosity
In the last stanza the pair’s happiness spills over into giving. They hand an old stranger all their money except their fares, a gesture that is reckless and kind at once.
Youth and freedom
Staying out all night, buying fruit by the dozen and giving money away all belong to people who, for the moment, feel no need to be careful. The poem never states their age, but the mood is that of youth.
Images and symbols
The ferry
A boat that goes back and forth without really going anywhere. It stands for pleasure for its own sake, a night with no destination.
The sunrise
The “bucketful of gold” in line 12 marks the end of the night and gives the memory its richest image, a kind of wealth that costs nothing.
The apples and pears
Bought by the dozen and eaten on the ferry, then given away. The fruit moves from the pair’s shared pleasure to the woman’s gratitude.
How Recuerdo ends, explained
The last stanza moves the poem outward. After the refrain returns in lines 13 and 14, the pair greet a woman, seen only as a “shawl-covered head,” with the old-fashioned “Good morrow, mother!” They buy a morning paper and do not read it. Then the woman weeps “God bless you!” for the apples and the pears, which suggests they have handed her their fruit, and the final line says they gave her all their money except their subway fares. The ending works on two levels. On the surface it is simply another happy, careless act in a night full of them: the two are too full of joy to hold on to anything. Underneath, it shows that their happiness has room for someone else. The woman’s tears bring a note of hardship into the poem, since a gift of fruit and pocket change moves her deeply, and the pair answer that need with everything they can spare. The subway fares matter too. They are the one sensible thing the two keep, a reminder that the night is ending and ordinary life is waiting. Millay’s later revision of the poem reads “apples and pears” in line 17; the 1922 text printed here has “the apples and the pears.”
“We were very tired, we were very merry— / We had gone back and forth all night on the ferry.”
“And the sun rose dripping, a bucketful of gold.”
“And bought a morning paper, which neither of us read;”
“And we gave her all our money but our subway fares.”
Common misreadings
MythThe poem says the two people are lovers.
ActuallyThe poem calls the companion only “you” and never says what the relationship is. Many readers assume a romance, and the mood allows it, but the text does not state it.
MythThe woman they call “mother” is the speaker’s mother.
Actually“Mother” in line 15 is a friendly, old-fashioned way of greeting an older woman, like calling a stranger “ma’am.” The poem shows her only as a “shawl-covered head” that they call out to.
MythThis text must be wrong, because my anthology reads “a hill-top” and “apples and pears.”
ActuallyBoth versions are Millay’s. This page prints the 1922 book text, with “the hill-top” in line 5 and “the apples and the pears” in line 17. Millay later revised both phrases, and most anthologies now print the revised version.
AP practice a poetry prompt in the exam's style
In Edna St. Vincent Millay’s “Recuerdo,” first published in 1919, a speaker remembers a night spent riding a ferry with a companion. Read the poem carefully, then write an essay that analyzes how Millay uses literary elements and techniques to convey a complex perspective on happiness and memory.
What a strong response notices
- The refrain in lines 1 and 2, 7 and 8, and 13 and 14, and how its small changes in punctuation mark the night moving on.
- The chain of clauses beginning with “And” (lines 9, 11, 12 and 16 to 18), which makes the night feel like one unbroken stream.
- The sensory images: the stable smell in line 3, the “wan” sky and cold wind in line 11, and the sun “dripping, a bucketful of gold” in line 12.
- The unread morning paper in line 16, which sets the pair apart from the ordinary business of the day.
- The turn outward to the woman in the shawl in lines 15 to 18, and the gift of everything but the subway fares.
Practice prompt written by StoryBites, not taken from a College Board exam. See the AP Literature free-response guide for how answers are scored.
Test yourself
1. How did the two spend the night?
The refrain in lines 2, 8 and 14 says they had gone back and forth all night on the ferry.
2. What did the speaker eat?
Line 9 says “you ate an apple, and I ate a pear.”
3. How does line 12 describe the rising sun?
Line 12 reads “the sun rose dripping, a bucketful of gold.”
4. What happened to the morning paper?
Line 16 says they bought a morning paper “which neither of us read.”
5. What did they keep for themselves at the end?
Line 18 says they gave the woman all their money “but our subway fares.”
Flashcards flip, self-grade, and the deck remembers what you know
Nice work.
The speaker remembers a night out with a friend. They rode a ferry back and forth all night, just for fun. They were very tired and very happy. They ate fruit, watched the moon, and saw the sun come up like a bucket of gold. In the morning they met a woman wrapped in a shawl and gave her their fruit and almost all their money. They kept only enough to ride the subway home.
Compare & connect
First Fig
Another Millay poem from A Few Figs from Thistles about living brightly without counting the cost. The candle burns at both ends; here the pair spend the whole night and nearly all their money.
Dover Beach
Two people by the water at night in both poems. Arnold’s speaker hears sadness in the sea and ends in darkness, while Millay’s pair stay up to see the sun rise.
London’s Summer Morning
Both poems catch a city waking up, full of ordinary people and small street sights. Robinson surveys the whole busy street, while Millay stays with two people and one woman in a shawl.
Discussion and essay prompts:
💬 Discussion questions
- What does Recuerdo mean
- What is Recuerdo by Edna St. Vincent Millay about
- What ferry is Recuerdo about
- How does Recuerdo explore the theme of simple joy?
- How does Recuerdo explore the theme of memory?
- Do you agree that the poem says the two people are lovers? Why or why not?
✎ Essay prompts
- Analyze how Edna St. Vincent Millay develops the theme of simple joy in Recuerdo. Support your argument with specific evidence from the text.
- Examine the significance of the ferry in Recuerdo. What does it represent, and how does it deepen the work’s meaning?
- How does Edna St. Vincent Millay use refrain to shape the reader’s experience of Recuerdo?
- Some readers assume that the poem says the two people are lovers. Argue for or against this interpretation, using evidence from the text.
Key questions students ask
- What does Recuerdo mean
- What is Recuerdo by Edna St. Vincent Millay about
- What ferry is Recuerdo about
- Who is the old woman in Recuerdo
- Why do they give away their money in Recuerdo
- What is the refrain in Recuerdo
Analysis is original StoryBites commentary. The poem is printed from the enlarged 1922 edition of Millay’s A Few Figs from Thistles (Frank Shay, 1922), checked line by line against the page images of that printing. It is in the public domain.