Writing to a man from her past, Millay’s speaker imagines what she would have done if he had stayed. She would have stopped teasing, dropped her flirtatious act, and let him see her honestly, with all her flaws laid out. But he did not remain, so that vulnerable version of her never appeared. Instead, she says she still values the composure and distance she kept. She now exists in his memory as something cold and polished: a marble ghost of the girl he knew, forever just a day or two away from loving him. The phrase “I think I should have loved you presently” captures the strange near-miss at the center: love was likely, even imminent, but never actual. The mood is wistful and ironic, mixing regret with self-possession. The speaker mourns the intimacy that never happened, yet she also stands apart from it, remote and untouchable.
Four Sonnets 2 — Summary
I think I should have loved you presently, And given in earnest words I flung in jest; And lifted honest eyes for you to see, And caught your hand against my cheek and breast; And all my pretty follies flung aside That won you to me, and beneath your gaze, Naked of reticence and shorn of pride, Spread like a chart my little wicked ways. I, that had been to you, had you remained, But one more waking from a recurrent dream, Cherish no less the certain stakes I gained, And walk your memory's halls, austere, supreme, A ghost in marble of a girl you knew Who would have loved you in a day or two.