Millay's Essay What Lips My Lips Have Kissed

725 Words2 Pages

Romantic love is one that often leaves heartbreak in its wake. Many people confuse love and lust and often chase it to achieve happiness; not knowing that if the love is not fulfilled it only causes pain. “What lips my lips have Kissed” by Edna St. Vincent Millay, demonstrates that relationships are short-lived and leave a person with only pain. This is demonstrated through the use of metaphor, symbolism and imagery.
In this poem, Millay talks about the many past lovers she had in her life, using metaphor. The speaker says, “The rain is full of ghosts tonight that tap and sigh” (3-4). She is reminiscing over memories of her past lovers, who haunt her memory even after all these years. She goes on to say, “In my heart there stirs a quiet pain for unremembered lads that not again will turn to me at midnight with a cry” (6-8). She is upset about the fact that those people, men or women, will never be with her again. This shows us …show more content…

Millay writes “what lips my lips have kissed” (1) in a passionate tone. She is proud about what happened in her past but misses it immensely. She continues to say that ‘arms have lain under my head till morning…’ (2-3), here she continues to talk about the passion and love she once experienced in life. Then we see that she no longer has this when she states that “but the rain is full of ghosts tonight that tap and sigh upon the glass and listen for reply, and in my heart there stirs a quiet pain…” (3-6). Those ghosts are memories of her past lovers that still haunt in her present. She further makes her point when she says “Thus in the winter stand the lonely tree” (9). This further emphasises how Millay is left alone in the bitter-cold, after the ending of the relationships. It is shown using imagery how Millay once had a passionate love but is now alone because those short relationships have

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