The poem I have chosen to analyze is “Love is Not All” by Edna St. Vincent Millay. This poem is very different from the normal romanticized love poems that we see today. In this piece, the poet portrays love as secondary to our physical needs because it is unable to sustain us, everything necessary for human survival doesn’t require love. The main idea for the majority of this poem is that love is unimportant. “Love is Not All” is a sonnet, meaning it is composed of 14 lines. Its structure takes elements from the two most typical forms of a sonnet which are Shakespearean and Petrarchan sonnets. The rhyme scheme of a Shakespearean sonnet is used but the turn of the poem in this structure is supposed to come after three …show more content…
The middle of the poem is centered around the fact that even though we don’t need love people will die without it. This seems to say that we are the ones who give meaning and put emphasis on love. Lines nine through eleven are the poet in a debate with herself about the importance of love. Lines twelve and thirteen are what is referred to as “the turn” in a sonnet. Here her argument changes, she goes from portraying love as completely negative to wondering whether she herself would give up love. The last line “It well may be. I do not think I would.” (13) is the resolution of the poem. Even though love doesn’t benefit us in any way physically she still would choose love over a necessity like food.
Part 2: Explication
The main idea of this poem is exactly what the title says. Love is not all, she is saying that despite how much emphasis people put on love it is secondary to our physical needs such as food, shelter, and water which will always come first.
The speaker of this poem appears to be the author herself. It’s not clear if the poem was written about anyone in particular but upon research into her personal life, I found that her parents divorced at a young age and her father wasn’t involved in her life much after that. (Gale). This event in her life relates to the cynical tone found at the beginning of the poem. Even without her father’s love she was still able to function and survive which
Since the beginning of human existence love has earned a meaning of pure bliss and wild passion between two people that cannot be broken. Through out time the meaning of love has had its slight shifts but for the most part, maintains a positive value. In the poem “Love Should Grow Up Like a Wild Iris in the Fields,” the author, Susan Griffin expresses that this long lost concept of love is often concealed by the madness of everyday life and reality. In the poem, Griffin uses many literary elements to help convey the importance of true love. The usage of imagery, symbolism, and other literary techniques really help communicate Griffins’ meaning
The third and fourth stanzas offer the poems greatest paradoxes. The author speaks of the lovers being "At this unique distance from isolation" which is to say they are in the one place where they can truly be themselves, in their natural habitat, doing that which is only natural to human instinct. Despite these circumstances, however, the two are at a loss: "It becomes still more difficult to find / Words at once true and kind, / Or not untrue and not unkind." It is through this final stanza that the author conveys the ultimate paradox of human relationships: Relationships are not built upon true love for one another; rather they are built upon the absence of hatred.
When a reader grasps a theme throughout any piece of literature, he or she never clearly understands the intent without knowing where the theme came from. The theme that is portrayed in the poem is, often times reconnecting with a loved one cannot only bring happiness, but it can also bring sorrow. This theme was emphasized throughout the poem and without knowing the historical context of the poem, one could not necessarily understand where it came from. In the text it
In conclusion, the poem points the inevitable cycle of natural and emotional events and the power that love has to go beyond that cycle. This is why the speaker assures that the way he has loved is something that
“Sonnet 116” written by William Shakespeare is focusing on the strength and true power of love. Love is a feeling that sustainable to alterations, that take place at certain points in life, and love is even stronger than a breakup because separation cannot eliminate feelings. The writer makes use of metaphors expressing love as a feeling of mind not just heart as young readers may see it. To Shakespeare love is an immortal felling that is similar to a mark on a person’s life.
She continues to list her idealized love in Sonnets 43 and 14, stating that love should be pure as men “turn from praise”, a love which people endure because it is right and correct. She again through imagery demands the purity of genuine love that can grow through time and endure “on, through loves eternity”. This clearly explores the idea of aspirations, hope and idealism within the sonnet sequence.
Through the use of poetic devices such as repetition or alliteration, the author originally describes what love is not capable of providing and defines love as unnecessary but by the end of the poem, the author reveals that love has some value.
As the poem goes on it gets deeper with meaning, sadder even. Lines four and five are the most crucial lines of the poem. Line three ends with the head giving the heart advice. “You will lose the ones you love. They will all go,” this isn’t the first thing someone wants to hear, especially not someone who is aware that they have just lost someone they love. But this is classic, logical advice that your emotions need to hear. What it means is that one day everyone you love will be gone, it is the sad truth of the world we live in. Nothing is forever. “But even the earth will go,
William Butler Yeats’ “Never Give All The Heart” is about vulnerability, love, and blame. It warns of both the fickleness of women and that if one loves in an overbearing manner it will actually be detrimental. Yeats’ personal inspiration for the poem was likely Maud Gonne, a woman whom he proposed to four times, who rejected him all four times and then proceeded to marry someone else.
The reader begins to wonder if it is actually just the man she is afraid to be in love with rather than the idea of love itself. According to her, the man sees her simply as a problem that he can solve with his wits and charm, suggesting that he would not be interested in her once she has dissolved in the heat of his charm. Perhaps she is aware that this man might not be a good choice for her, yet she cannot control her feelings for him. However, in the following lines, she expresses her own incapacity to survive and be happy, bringing the reader back to the theme she started the poem with. Despite being blown away by his acts of kindness time after time, she finds herself beyond recovery and asks the man to reconsider his intentions since she is a problem he might never be able to solve. Therefore, the second stanza shows the grave nature of the poet's
The poem “What lips my lips have kissed, and where, and why” is quite compelling though a bit baffling at first glance. The writer of this poem is Edna St. Vincent Millay, whose an American poet and playwright. Millay was born in Maine into a poverty-stricken family. Her mother was a fan of classic literature varying from William Shakespeare to John Milton and would read these poets’ works to her daughters. Ultimately, inspiring Millay into becoming a poet herself. In 1923, Millay won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry being the third female to win this award. In the poem, “What lips my lips have kissed, and where, and why” by Edna St. Vincent Millay, an explanation of the poem’s meaning, form, and pattern will be made in order to understand this writer’s work.
The structure of this poem is a sonnet and sonnets are supposed to be love poems. The poet talks about hate to introduce a sense of irony.
It is also reminiscent of a sonnet, often a love poem. The love in this poem is of a father who is trying to protect his son but who realises the futility of this. Every other line rhymes in this poem which has the effect of making the poem seem more intense as the rhyme is not overly obvious. It is also written in the first person which makes it seem so much more personal, “my son,” “I saw” and shows Scannal wanting to make the reader sympathies for the child. He reminds us in the last two lines our lives are exposed to physical and negative pain.
Nor ought but love from thee recompense Thy love is such I can no way repay, The heavens reward thee manifold I pray. Then while we live, in love let's so persevere, That when we live no more, we may live ever. Anne Bradstreet's poem "
The title of the poem “My mistress eyes are nothing like the sun” suggests that the speaker is not in love with his ‘mistress’. However, this is not the case. Shakespeare uses figurative language by using criticizing hyperboles to mock the traditional love sonnet. Thus, showing not only that the ideal woman is not always a ‘goddess’, but mocking the way others write about love. Shakespeare proves that love can be written about and accomplished without the artificial and exuberant. The speaker’s tone is ironic, sarcastic, and comical turning the traditional conceit around using satire. The traditional iambic pentameter rhyming scheme of the sonnet makes the diction fall into place as relaxed, truthful, and with elegance in the easy flowing verse. In turn, making this sonnet one of parody and real love.