I chose to do my paper over the poem “Love is Not All” by Edna St. Vincent Millay, due to the fact that it was the first poem to catch my eye, because when I first saw it, I was actually getting over a hard time in my life, and reading the title made me interested in what the poem was about. At first when I read the poem, I was super confused, but looking deeper into it, I realized the poem truly had a meaning.
The poem starts off with someone in love, depicting what the love of her significant other (aka her schmoopie) is not. For example, she states that “it is not meat nor drink nor slumber nor a roof against the rain (Millay 1-2).” In other words, love does not fill you, or quench hunger or thirst, neither does it offer the necessary rest needed or even shelter. It doesn’t provide us with the necessary things we need to survive. At this point of the poem the message I’m getting from it is that love is not the only thing needed for survival. I sense sassiness in the poet's tone and a hint of anger. This line in the poem is very tense, and it seems like the author is just
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Vincent Millay, finally reveals that although love isn’t everything, without it, it leaves you with an empty feeling and she’d rather have that love than peace. Millay’s title of the poem is very misleading, because in the first half of the poem she goes on about how love isn’t all, but at the end she says “I might be driven to sell your love for peace, Or trade the memory of this night for food. It well may be. I do not think I would” (Millay 12-14). Here, she makes the claim that she would not trade love for physical survival, and in a sense she accepts love even with all the services it cannot give, she lets her lover know that she would never even trade his love for peace. Humans hunger and thirst for peace, and the poet making the claim that she wouldn’t even trade love for such a valuable feeling such as peace, gives off the vibe that love really is
This poem has many metaphors and similes one of the many examples is “keep it like a warm coat when winter comes to cover you” ( jimmy Santiago Baca lines 3-4).Throughout the poem you can see that even though he is broke he is still willing to do anything for the person he loves this relates to the human condition because we all seek this kind of love but at same time we offer this back to the person we love. One example that show how much he is willing to for the person he loves is “It's all I have to give,and all anyone needs to live,”( Jimmy santiago Baca lines 24-25). All every human every wants and needs is love we spend our whole lives seeking
If I were asked who the most precious people in my life are, I would undoubtedly answer: my family. They were the people whom I could lean on to matter what happens. Nonetheless, after overhearing my mother demanded a divorce, I could not love her as much as how I loved her once because she had crushed my belief on how perfect life was when I had a family. I felt as if she did not love me anymore. Poets like Philip Levine and Robert Hayden understand this feeling and depict it in their poems “What Work Is” and “Those Winter Sundays.” These poems convey how it feels like to not feel love from the family that should have loved us more than anything in the world. Yet, they also convey the reconciliation that these family members finally reach because the speakers can eventually see love, the fundamental component of every family in the world, which is always presence, indeed. Just like I finally comprehended the reason behind my mother’s decision was to protect me from living in poverty after my father lost his job.
I personally loved everything that this poem stood for. I liked that this poem had two average people at its center. They were not young or insanely beautiful, but they still showed how amazing love can be and how love goes beyond everything. When it comes down to it love has no gender, age, race, or time it is just about humans loving other humans. In this week’s chapter it is discussed how romance itself has a huge cultural impact and this poem definitely connects with this idea. This poem also follows the cliche of love. The way that love is blinding and will conquer all is presented in a real and believable way, but then it can also be considered unrelatable for some because how romance is set up to be and how high the standards are for true love. Furthermore, I like the idea of love going beyond age, beauty, and time but realistically for most people they will never experience a love so intense. People can though understand how what is portrayed in the media is not how everyone experiences love and that people who differ from this unrealistic standard can still be in love in their own intense beautiful way.
Part II: Explication The title of the poem “Love is Not All” asserts the impression that suggests the unimportant of love to its reader at first. However, the ending of the poem reveals the ironic truth that love is worthwhile. Millay’s intention is not to confuse readers by using a title that forcefully disrespects love. However, she projects the title of the poem to ascertain the grounds for her argument that love is important.
The Desert at Hand, the first poem she read to us, although by far the one which moved me the most, seemed very confusing at first. She opens "Love is also fragment: the cheek of the moon's fat-boy face giving itself up to be kissed, the ingredient phrase, I can't live without you, the sum of the few words that truly invent themselves - You are." At first, the impression of the poem's direction and attitude seemed positive, inspiring the thought that love really is self-sufficient despite it's fragility. Even the title The Desert at Hand seems to imply a biblical simile, that love is a test which can both test and strengthen you, just as Jesus' 40 days in the desert was a time of great temptation and redemption for him.
“Love Poem With Toast” by Miller Williams introduces the effect our desires have in our daily lives in order to “move, as we call it, forward” (11). Miller Williams also conveys this message accompanied with a darker meaning; though these desires make up a large part of our lives, in the end none of it will matter because we leave the world the same way we enter it, with nothing. Despite this message being carried out, it is still a love poem at the surface, but it is not about a person confessing their love, rather pretending to love, and continuing to live with this self-conflict about choosing to be in a frigid relationship over not being in one at all. It is interesting how Miller rhythmically categorizes his message throughout the poem;
Poets often times share their opinions through their poems. It is not always easily understood. Poets use metaphors, similes, and play with their words to show how they feel about a certain situation. In “Sex without Love” by Sharon Olds, a lot of this comes into play.
Both poets want to be loved in the poems in their own way. While both poem’s present a theme of love, it is obvious that the poet’s view on love changes from how they view love at the beginning of the poem from how they see it at the end.
Through these lines, the poet hopes to see people who’d sense and understand when one’s in need of help. She wishes they’d run to their aid and help them no matter the cost.
There are many different themes that can be used to make a poem both successful and memorable. Such is that of the universal theme of love. This theme can be developed throughout a poem through an authors use of form and content. “She Walks in Beauty,” by George Gordon, Lord Byron, is a poem that contains an intriguing form with captivating content. Lord Byron, a nineteenth-century poet, writes this poem through the use of similes and metaphors to describe a beautiful woman. His patterns and rhyme scheme enthrall the reader into the poem. Another poem with the theme of love is John Keats' “La Belle Dame sans Merci,” meaning “the beautiful lady without mercy.” Keats, another nineteenth-century writer, uses progression and compelling language throughout this poem to engage the reader. While both of these poems revolve around the theme of love, they are incongruous to each other in many ways.
Sappho, who is very well the speaker and author of the poem, clearly recognizes the substantial impact that love creates in relation to the amount of happiness people experience. Those who are successful in the game love, whether it be by giving it or receiving it, are far happier than those who confront despair and rejection. Finding love means finding the acceptance, companionship, and most of all, happiness that everyone strives to receive in their lifetime. As a result, love becomes a weapon for power, superiority, and control.
This is a complex poem. She even began with a complex idea, love. What exactly is love? Is it a feeling, an emotion that no one has control of? Is love something you can feel or touch? Some say it is not something that you can feel or touch, but you are well aware when love touches you, because you can feel it. It is an emotion that causes pleasure and pain. In this poem, Millay is showing how complex love is. The first half is about what love cannot do. Love is not a lifesaver, shelter, or a doctor. The second half is about the power of love. Even though love is not tangible, is it as important as something that is? Millay seems to be coming from the idea that love is not everything, but it is important. A question is raised, is love necessary for survival?
She would rather have a present love that is completely unfathomable than a real love that is not around. The repetition in this poem makes the reader believe this loss is actually causing the speaker to lose her mind, but through changing tones that mirror the emotions anyone would go through in a situation of loss like this, the speaker’s response is completely justified.
As the poem continues on, the evening is spent. talking about anything but love. The final topic of discussion goes much deeper. than just love. They end up talking about how the world is sometimes so. unpredictable and dark. But they have to both rise above that and always be true and faithful to one another. & nbsp; The "Dover Beach," by Matthew Arnold, is a love poem, but is mostly about the beach.
She created a negative connotation of love and its importance in the beginning of the poem, but gradually transitioned to uncertainty allowing the reader to make his or her own decision on the subject. Is love more important than food or shelter, or health? Millay definitely does not answer this question, but in a sense it was not supposed to be answered. Love is as important as one wants it to be. This prominent idea that love is not a necessity of life, but it somehow manages to provoke such great desire and happiness, that it becomes important is the theme of the poem. It is an engaging and thought provoking poem that allows the reader to also examine him or herself, while Millay promotes a direct theme with