New Criticism and “Love Is Not All: It Is Not Meat Nor Drink” “Love Is Not All: It Is Not Meat Nor Drink” by Edna St. Vincent Millay offers a look into a speaker rationalizing their romantic relationship with another person after a feasibly romantic happening, but the poem logically approaches her possible love. The speaker’s logic finds itself at odds with the passion commonly associated with loving another. By the poem’s close, the speaker’s love for their partner is left in an ambiguous, perhaps ironic, light; furthermore, the poem’s last line offers the balance, or hope, of the speaker actually being in love. Despite the lack of a clearly stated resolution to if the speaker is or is not in love, the speaker most likely does not love their …show more content…
The mention of “the memory of tonight” suggests the couple’s night featured romance; presumably, the speaker is driven to rationalize their love upon being asked if they are in love. Essentially, the rationality of the poem avoids answering the question of if the speaker is in love by dancing around the question with logic. Considering the passion accompanying romance, the speaker should be too caught-up in the moment to think logically if they truly were in love. The speaker begins by working through how love lacks a tangible purpose for humans; thereafter, the poem shifts to an unreassuring statement of not exchanging her “love” for her romantic partner for those basic necessities love can not provide. There is no certainty or passion with the speaker’s closing statement on trading their current love: “It may be. I do not I would.” The logical reasoning is likely the speaker’s internal string of thought, and the reasoning intends to talk the speaker into believing they are in love. If directly spoken to the lover, the speaker might of offered a stronger sense of reassurance in the end to ensure a continued normal …show more content…
“Love Is Not All: It Is Not Meat Nor Drink” largely avoids passion in the speaker’s relationship; nevertheless, passion and logic struggle in coming in terms with love here. In the logic driven octave, passion can been noticed in physical metaphors and repetition in the section; accordingly, they allude to sexual love and passion. For instance, the speakers metaphorical situation utilizes phrases that favor sexual situations, like “pinned down” and “moaning for release” (10). Adding to a sexual situation, repetition of the “rise and sink” may mean to reference intercourse (4). The speaker’s relationship can be reasonably be assumed to involve sexual activities, thusly the speaker’s passion for their partner may be only be sexual. In this line of thought, the logical reasoning suggests the speaker searches for a love based passion in sexually based relationship; the speaker’s end goal may be to find personal reassurance of their sexual desires if they are in love. It may not be love, but the speaker seems comfortable with the relationship and would want to preserve it, which the closing statement does. On another note, the relationship may be fresh, and the speaker can move to passionately declaring love for the lover in good time; although, it being a new relationship is unlikely, due to the lengths underwent to logically evaluate the situation. Regardless, the speaker predominately lacks passion for their
Kim Addonizio’s “First Poem for You” portrays a speaker who contemplates the state of their romantic relationship though reflections of their partner’s tattoos. Addressing their partner, the speaker ambivalence towards the merits of the relationship, the speaker unhappily remains with their partner. Through the usage of contrasting visual and kinesthetic imagery, the speaker revels the reasons of their inability to embrace the relationship and showcases the extent of their paralysis. Exploring this theme, the poem discusses how inner conflicts can be powerful paralyzers.
She is to fall for him and belong to him, not the other way around. Additionally, the line is not written as a question or a suggestion, but as a command. The command further adds to the sense of subservience and the sexism. The sexism comes into play since she, as the woman, is supposed to listen to his command and move from her current life to live with him in his.
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 is important.
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 to relate to, thus weakening the effect on the reader. These poems were published quite far apart from each other, three-hundred and fourteen years to be exact, which might explain the shift in idealism. Though both circumnavigate the concept of love, the effect left within both writers based on personal affairs dramatically differentiates the personas of both speakers.
"What lips have I 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 other amazing findings, but these two were the first and most important to me.
As the time passed, it was clear to both of them that their relationship will not turn into a sexual one, but into something much more profound. He did not want it to be compromised by carnality. The urgent appetite they felt for each other could not be satisfied by mere adhesion to lust. They had to deal with their souls, hearts and minds, as well as their bodies.
Both, the poem “Reluctance” by Robert Frost and “Time Does Not Bring Relief” by Edna St. Vincent Millay, revolved around the theme of lost love. Each poet used a similar array of poetic devices to express this theme. Visual imagery was one of the illustrative poetic devices used in the compositions. Another poetic device incorporated by both poets in order to convey the mood of the poems was personification. And by the same token, metaphors were also used to help express the gist of both poems. Ergo, similar poetic devices were used in both poems to communicate the theme of grieving the loss of a loved one.
Millay uses romantic language. That is evident in the first line, "Love is not all: it is not meat nor drink". The romantic aspect of love is shown in the language of this poem. The poem is not directly about two lovers. It is more indirect, this is what two lovers may face. Her language is picturesque. "Nor yet a floating spar to men that sink / And rise and sink and rise and sink again;" It is as if the poem was showing a picture of a man in the sea that is struggling to survive and throughout the course of bobbing up and down he continues to see a pole or paddle, but he just can't reach it. There are more ideas that can be pictured easily throughout the poem, because of the language that Millay uses. "Love can no fill the thickened lung with breath, / Nor clean the blood, nor set the fractured bone;" These lines create an interesting picture in your mind.
Love is the ubiquitous force that drives all people in life. If people did not want, give, or receive love, they would never experience life because it is the force that completes a person. Although it often seems absent, people constantly strive for this ever-present force as a means of acceptance. Elizabeth Barrett Browning is an influential poet who describes the necessity of love in her book of poems Sonnets from the Portuguese. In her poems, she writes about love based on her relationship with her husband – a relationship shared by a pure, passionate love. Browning centers her life and happiness around her husband and her love for him. This life and pure happiness is dependent on their love, and she expresses this outpouring and reliance of her love through her poetry. She uses imaginative literary devices to strengthen her argument for the necessity of love in one’s life. The necessity of love is a major theme in Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s “Sonnet 43” and “Sonnet 29.”
Did I Miss Anything? is a poem written by a Canadian poet and academic Tom Wayman. Being a teacher, he creates a piece of literature, where he considers the answers given by a teacher on one and the same question asked by a student, who frequently misses a class. So, there are two speakers present in it – a teacher and a student. The first one is fully presented in the poem and the second one exists only in the title of it. The speakers immediately place the reader in the appropriate setting, where the actions of a poem take place – a regular classroom. Moreover, the speakers unfolds the main theme of the poem – a hardship of being a teacher, the importance of education and laziness, indifference and careless attitudes of a student towards studying.
To what extent does the presence of nature impact the poems in “twenty love poems and a song of despair”
On the other side, “Love Poem” is very different from the previous poem. This seven stanza poem is based on a man describing the imperfections of his lover. In this, the speaker uses stylistic devices, such as alliteration and personification to impact more on reader, for example as the speaker shows “your lipstick ginning on our coat,”(17) ...
“Love Poem” is a twenty-four-line poem in six stanzas. The generic tittle is an accurate description of the poem; it is a clue that this may not be a traditional example of love poetry. Both poems have the same rhyme scheme because the second and fourth line of every stanza rhyme. However, “Magic of Love’ speaks of a general love bringing happiness, joy and comfort. While “Love Poem” is much more personal. The speaker talks of memories with his clumsy love. Both poems have a different point of view when it comes to love. In Ferrier’s poem, she describes love as something perfect, that fixes everything. However, in Frederick’s poem, he doesn’t speak about what the love does right but rather he talks
Everyone has relationships. Some are platonic and some are romantic. One of the most sacred relationships is marriage. Marriage is a union of trust, but sometimes there are reasons when that is broken. Infidelity can damage relationships and change them. Once you cheat on your significant other, your new lover holds the power of a dark secret over you. E.E. Cummings show that relationship dynamics change quickly through his use of form in his poem “may i feel said he”.
Love is the ubiquitous force that drives all people in life. If people did not want, give, or receive love, they would never experience life because it is the force that completes a person. People rely on this seemingly absent force although it is ever-present. Elizabeth Barrett Browning is an influential poet who describes the necessity of love in her poems from her book Sonnets from the Portuguese. She writes about love based on her relationship with her husband. Her life is dependent on him, and she expresses this same reliance of love in her poetry. She uses literary devices to strengthen her argument for the necessity of love. The necessity of love is a major theme in Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s “Sonnet 14,” “Sonnet 43,” and “Sonnet 29.”