Edna St. Vincent Millay has created complex as well as emotionally and politically charged poetry in her career. Her poetry is often considered expressive yet also indifferent by some critics. Yet, her skill with metaphor and other evocative poetic features bring us poems that are reflective of her self, and also ourselves as readers. By developing skilled metaphors for interpreting and developing her own identity as an author and for us as a reader, we are given a construction of selfhood. In this
Edna St. Vincent Millay's "What Lips My Lips Have Kissed, and Where and Why" is an effective short poem, which feeds on the dissonance between the ideal of love and its reality, heartbreak. In William Shakespeare's "Let Me Not to The Marriage of True Minds," the effectiveness is weakened by its idealiality and metaphysical stereotype. In contrast to Millay, Shakespeare paints a genuine portrait of what love should be but unfortunately never really is. This factor is what makes his poem difficult
"What lips my lips have kissed" by Edna St. Vincent Millay While reading "What lips my lips have kissed" by Edna St. Vincent Millay, I realized many things about myself. The first thing was that I, after thinking I would never be able to decipher one word of poetry, actually could. I also found that I was able to enjoy it. Another thing was that the narrator (whom I felt was a woman- no man could portray these feelings like a woman) and I had strikingly similar feelings. There happened to be many
The main theme of the two poems is love. However, their prospective on the topic differs just slightly. In “Love is Not All” by Edna St. Vincent Millay tells how love will not cure a sickness or injury, but in some way it is still a necessity in life. Whereas in “Since feeling is First” by E. E. Cummings describes how love is more important than logic in the end and how you should not worry about what you are getting out of love because it is essential for a well-balanced life. The main theme in
Normal Covers a Wide Range: The Poetry of Edna St. Vincent Millay The poet Edna St. Vincent Millay is a composite of her own unique history: she thinks about it, reflects upon it, and recognizes how things happen in life and why. As a result, her poetry has a cause and effect quality, as though shaped by the people, events, and relationships influential to her thinking and behavior. However, Sigmund Freud says that the drives and impulses behind behavioral forces are internal. [comment1]He
carry about with us." - Oscar Wilde. In her poem, "Recuerdo" Edna St. Vincent Millay tells of a night worth remembering, as she gives purpose and significance to the tiny moments. Edna St. Vincent Millay uses repetition, common themes, and imagery to recount an innocent memory through the eyes of a young girl in love. Edna St. Vincent Millay repeats the first two lines of her poem, “Recuerdo” in an effort to cling to the memory. Millay stresses the emotions felt by repeating, “we were very tired
possibilities that are new and unfamiliar for the traveler. The poem Travel written by Edna St. Vincent Millay does a great job of using its metaphors to deliver this message The process of the unknown journey is often started with the dream and wonders. It allows fantasy about places one has never been before. The poem, Travel states “The railroad track is miles away, /And the day is loud with voices speaking,” (Millay). This is
Edna St. Vincent Millay once stated, “I am glad that I paid so little attention to good advice; had I abided by it I might have been saved from some of my most valuable mistakes.” Millay was a poet in the early 1900s. She wrote numerous poems in which all a constant theme. Two of my favorite poems from her are Spring, which was written in 1921, and I Forgot for a Moment which was published in 1940. These two poems were written nineteen years apart, but Millay showed a thematic connection between
In the poem Recuerdo, by Edna St. Vincent Millay, New York takes the backseat. Unlike many NYC based poems, the primary focus of this poem is not on the city itself, but on the people. Recuerdo focuses on the mind of one person, who, like the title implies, is trying to remember. Despite being drunk, her few hazy memories suggest a happy night spent with a lover, adventuring around the city. The poem is vague and fast-paced, intentionally replicating the state of the speaker’s mind, but the speaker
The Sonnet by Edna St. Vincent Millay, “Love is Not All” demonstrates an unpleasant feeling about the knowledge of love with the impression to consider love as an unimportant element that does not worth dying for; the poem is a personal message addressing the intensity, importance, and transitory nature of love. The poet’s impression reflects her general point of view about love as portrays in the title “Love is Not All.” However, the unfolding part of the poem reveals the sarcastic truth that love
The assimilation of human feeling with nature impacted the writings of Edna St. Vincent Millay throughout the entirety of her career. At an early age, on the coast of Maine, Millay had a quasi-religious experience while nearly drowning, that when written down ten years later became the foundation of one of her most staggering works, “Renascence.” The way in which Millay confronts and interacts with nature, namely the sky, is unnerving, raw, and beautiful. She transcends time and is enabled to take
been” (St. Vincent Millay ) this is a quote from the poem ‘Dirge Without Music’. According to my perspective of this poem, its related to the death of loved ones. In more words it means that loved ones die, loved ones will die; loved ones have died and this will never change. This sad but truthful poem was written by Edna St. Vincent Millay. This woman was a person whom received love and compensation for her work. She had a lifelong supporter also known as her mother. Edna St. Vincent Millay’s
In the sonnet “VII” by Edna St. Vincent Millay and poem “Forgetfulness” by Billy Collins, the poets use a variety of techniques to illustrate two different yet similar meanings. In VII Millay tells a story of depression using analogies of darkness, yet in Collins poem he uses quippy humor to accept his fate with resignation. Both poems are easily relatable and come thick with meaning. In “VII” by Edna St. Vincent Millay and “Forgetfulness” by Billy Collins, both poets use literary devices to evoke
poem, “Love is not all” by Edna St. Vincent Millay. The most prominent theme presented in “Love is not all” is that although love is not a necessity of life, it somehow manages to provoke such great desire and happiness that it becomes important. The poem begins with a negative view of love, “Love is not all: it is not meat nor drink Nor slumber nor a roof against the rain;” she compares it to essential items such as food, sleep, and shelter (Millay lines 1-2). Millay questions the validity of love
Edna St. Vincent Millay's Sonnet "I, Being Born a Woman and Distressed" Edna St. Vincent Millay’s sonnet, “I, Being Born a Woman and Distressed,” serves as an excellent example of a multi-faceted piece. From one angle, it is simply a Petrarchan sonnet, written with a slight variation on rhyme scheme – but that variation, taken deeper, reveals new layers of meaning. Added to Millay’s choice of meter and end-stop, along with a background of Millay’s person, this sonnet seems not so “simple” after
At a time when women were seen as no more than commodities or accessories, Edna St. Vincent Millay shocked the country with her post-war sexual defiance. Her bold and dramatic personality garnered both great interest and great criticism. Millay was able to be one of the pioneers for feminist philosophy, practicing her natural sexual desires: an area only familiar to men. Whether she intended to or not, she demonstrates to readers everywhere that it isn’t only men who hold the strength; women are
Harvey Merrick, a brilliant sculptor, has died and is being transported back to his hometown of Sand City. Throughout The Sculptor’s Funeral, the short story is told from multiple points of view. The beginning of The Sculptor’s Funeral is told from the point of view of Henry Steavens. Henry Steavens is a student of Mr. Merrick’s and considers him a mentor. Henry travels with Mr. Merrick’s body as it is being transported to his hometown in Kansas. The point of view of Henry Steavens is significant
remember me but in the sestet she is saying forget about me, this is what is meant by change of meaning in the octave and sestet. The second sonnet I shall be looking is called "Sonnet" which is written after 1914. This sonnet is written by Edna St. Vincent Millay. "Sonnet" is about past love and not having anyone too love. In the octave she talks about the past but in the sestet she talks about the present. This is another demonstration of how the meaning has changed in the octave and sestet.
experience. The same is evident for Edna St. Vincent Millay, a beloved poet of the early twentieth century. There is a strong connection of between Millay’s personal life and how it influenced her poetry. As a feminist Edna St. Vincent Millay’s upbringing
While love may be an extremely touchy subject as well as one that can be incredibly hard to interpret in a unique way, it is not impossible to broach the subject from a fresh perspective; In “Love is not all” Edna St. Vincent Millay is able to approach love in a way that initially seems extremely pessimistic and almost cold, but continues on to show the reader that she is not actually all that closed and even reveals some vulnerability by the very end. While the more negative approaches she uses