Edna St. Vincent Millay's Poem Love Is Not All

There are four basic necessities to sustain life: food, sleep, shelter, and air. Without these four things, humans cannot survive, but are living and surviving two different concepts? In Edna St. Vincent Millay’s poem “Love Is Not All”, she argues that while love does not keep us alive, it is the one thing in this world worth more than food, or shelter, or air. While basic necessitates for survival are wonderful, even they cannot overcome the human desire for love, shown by how the author sets up his poem with the use of structure and word choice. The theme of this poem is broken down and explained by the use of structure helping to express the change of the author’s thought process throughout the poem. The structure helps to show how the author breaks down that love is not all by listing what love is not, and then carrying on to show that, while love is not necessary for survival, it is key for a person truly living. In the poem, Edna St. Vincent Millay expresses many different things necessary for survival, all of which love is not: “meat”(line one)“drink”(line one), “slumber”(line two), and not a “roof against the rain”(line two). Because the poet begins the poem addressing everything love cannot give to a person, the reader assumes that this poem will have a negative tone, when it has the opposite, but that is not known until the end
Vincent Millay’s poem “Love is Not All” is a powerful poem about how, even though love does not seem like it should be necessary for human survival, it is necessary for human life. Without love, a person simply survives in a world of meaninglessness, but with love, even physical torture means nothing. The poem shows that, even though it could be considered something done irrationally, people have died for love and lack of love, and because of this act, love means more than just something to occupy time. The poet expresses this theme- loving to live, and living to love- through the use of structure and word