Edna St. Vincent Millay's Sonnet I, Being Born a Woman and Distressed

When love is typically described, it is thought of as a joy, almost pure. Most people want to be in love. Millay, on the other hand, seems to represent passionate love as almost burdensome. When referring to the act of love itself, she describes the women she identifies with “bearing as I bear/love like a burning city in the breast” (lines 7-8). She also states “[I] Do suffer love” (line 11). The words here are all negative, in contrast to what the reader would expect. Yet, the narrator also seems to look upon this way of loving with longing. She seeks the stories of the past, “Hunt[ing] the amorous line” (line 6). This way of love is how she wants to feel, and

While the woman may outwardly profess her desire for her sexual partner, the dispassionate diction and detached tone within the sonnet suggest otherwise. For, in acknowledging her lover’s close proximity, she states that she is “urged”

This sonnet has very smooth and fluid feel to it, most of which can be attributed to the iambic pentameter and Elizabethan sonnet rhyme scheme as well as the numerous sound

Edna St. Vincent Millay’s sonnet, “What lips my lips have kissed and where and why,” is about being, physically or mentally jaded, and thinking back to the torrid love of one’s youth. The “ghosts” that haunt her are the many lovers of her past; she’s specifically trying to remember them all. She recalls the passion she experienced and how there was a certain feeling within herself. Millay shows this through her vivid imagery, use of the rain as a literary device and by paralleling herself with a lonely tree.

The poem’s structure as a sonnet allows the speaker’s feelings of distrust and heartache to gradually manifest themselves as the poem’s plot progresses. Each quatrain develops and intensifies the speaker’s misery, giving the reader a deeper insight into his convoluted emotions. In the first quatrain, the speaker advises his former partner to not be surprised when she “see[s] him holding [his] louring head so low” (2). His refusal to look at her not only highlights his unhappiness but also establishes the gloomy tone of the poem. The speaker then uses the second and third quatrains to justify his remoteness; he explains how he feels betrayed by her and reveals how his distrust has led him

In the opening lines of Millay’s poem, it seems as if she is speaking to a lover. The tone of the poem is set in the first line, “in some quite casual way” (1). Throughout the sonnet, one senses a frighteningly casual tone, something very matter of fact, as if these fourteen lines are a passing thought in Millay’s head. The alliteration of “quite casual” supports the plain-spoken tone, giving a feel of simple, everyday speech. Millay imagines that as she is on the subway, she casually glances over and notices on “the back-page of a paper, say / Held by a neighbor” (3-4) her lover is gone and not to return.

By likening the man’s actions as a body that “takes off and flies, / flies straight as an arrow” (3-4), it is evident that there is a sexual interaction between a man and woman; however their relationship is unclear. Analysing Sexton’s choice of “arrow” (4) suggests that the woman is a one-time attraction for the man because an arrow flies straight and is physically incapable of returning to the bow from which it was strung. However, the metaphor does not reveal the relationship between the two, it can only be assumed and thus, according to Sexton, it is “a bad translation” (5) which suggests that although the metaphor is capable of describing the physicality of their relationship, it is ineffective at describing the esoteric qualities. Thus it becomes glaringly apparent that a single metaphor is incapable of completely unlocking the code of poetry – although it does, in part, decode some aspect of the

Millay throughout her poem utilizes symbolism which sets the tone of loneliness and nostalgia, making it easier for the reader to grasp the meaning of the poem. The first two lines of the poem, “What lips my lips have kissed, and where, and why, / I have forgotten, and what arms have lain” (Millay 1-2) the speaker explains in a subtle way about her former lovers she has now forgotten. “Under my head till morning; but the rain/ Is full of ghosts tonight, that tap and sigh/ Upon the glass and listen for reply,” (Millay 3-5) the speaker uses symbolism on her former lovers as ghosts that are tapping and can be interpreted as them prompting her memories. “And in my heart there stirs a quiet pain/ For unremembered lads that not

The 1920’s were an eventful time in history for both men and women alike. There were laws preventing the consumption of alcohol and women’s suffrage movements. Since Edna St. Vincent Millay was a young woman during the 1920’s, she easily wrote poems about the changing societal values and structure, especially from a women’s perspective. Many poets, like Millay, use techniques in their poetry such as imagery and tone to convey a particular message to their audience. In this case, Millay uses techniques such as imagery and extended metaphor to describe the relationship between man and woman and how the changing times have brought about a type of woman who is not as “obedient” as she has been before. The poem she writes is a sign of the changing

The speaker’s perspective in Millay’s poem in contrast to Wyatt’s is well showcased in these lines: “I find this frenzy insufficient reason / For conversation when we meet again” (“Being” 13-14). These

The sonnet begins by awkwardly detailing how the persona arrives at some location. He recounts: “I get there early and I find a chair.” Rather than describing any details about the event, the audience is only presented with two seemingly trivial details. Nonetheless, it is evident that this speaker is out of place from the beginning. It is socially unacceptable to get to parties early and antisocially slump down in a chair. More conventionally, partygoers arrive “fashionably late” and spend the evening mingling. From the instant this disparity in what is expected is recognized, the mood of the poem remains combative with the reader; provoking a uneasy and repulsive feeling regarding the speaker’s behavior. The first stanza continues with clumsy and elaborate depictions like

Edna St. Vincent Millay (1892-1950) was an American poet and playwright who was best known for her feminist activism and her controversial views on love and sex. Millay’s open views regarding sexuality provide readers with insight when analyzing the tone of her Sonnet (Women Have Loved Before As I Love Now). Edna St. Vincent Millay’s use of powerful diction, exemplified by her choice of the words suffer and treacherous, add to her melancholy and lamenting tone in the sestet, and aid in the understanding of the overall message of her sonnet. Millay’s use of the harsh word suffer, sets a melancholy and lamenting tone in the sestet of her sonnet, which contradicts her carefree tone in the octave. She uses the word suffer to describe how she feels

The targeted audience of this poem is females and young parents. The author describes the infants in the womb and how they are forced to be born dead. “I have contracted. I have eased.” This clearly explains

In the poems “The Widow’s Lament in Springtime” and “Lament,” each poet provides an account of a widow grieving for her late husband, but in a different manner. In “The Widow’s Lament in Springtime,” William Carlos Williams describes the widow grieving for her husband every year during spring since his death. In “Lament,” Edna St. Vincent Millay shows how the widow grieves for her husband by providing their children with his belongings. Although the widows grieve in contrasting ways, both of them seem to share a similar act in common. Throughout “The Widow’s Lament in Springtime” and “Lament,” each widow takes part in an act of remembrance towards her late husband.

I, being born a Woman is an Italian sonnet, also known as a Petrarchan Sonnet. It is written in iambic pentameter, meaning each line has five feet made up of an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable. It follows the typical pattern of the Italian sonnet with lines 1, 4, 5, and 8 rhyming and lines 2, 3, 6, and 7 rhyming as well. The first to the eighth line make up the octave and the ninth to fourteenth the sestet. While the sestet can be organized in a variety of rhyme schemes in this poem Millay chooses an atypical alternating pattern, having lines 9, 11, and 13 rhyme and