Edna St. Vincent Millay

One of my favorite poets, who became the the first woman to win the pulitzer prize for poetry. Robert Frost viewed her as his most serious competitor. She entered what is considered her best work, the poem Renascence, in a poetry contest at the age of 20, and only placed fourth! Here's a snippet of the beginning:

RENASCENCE
And all I saw from where I stood
Was three long mountains and a wood.
Over these things I could not see:
These were the things that bounded me;
And I could touch them with my hand,
Almost, I thought, from where I stand.
And all at once things seemed so small
My breath came short, and scarce at all.
But, sure, the sky is big, I said;
Miles and miles above my head;
So here upon my back I’ll lie
And look my fill into the sky.
And so I looked, and, after all,
The sky was not so very tall.
The sky, I said, must somewhere stop,
And—sure enough!—I see the top!
The sky, I thought, is not so grand;
I ’most could touch it with my hand!
And reaching up my hand to try,
I screamed to feel it touch the sky.
I screamed, and—lo!—Infinity
Came down and settled over me;
Forced back my scream into my chest
Bent back my arm upon my breast