Preview

Edna St. Vincent Millay's Poems

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
354 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Edna St. Vincent Millay's Poems
Edna St. Vincent Millay's poetry appeals to me because of her frank and unconventional subject matter, her overarching theme of loneliness, and her use of nature imagery. By expressing her feminist views on sexuality in lyrical poetry, Millay’s poems come across as a surprising mixture of gentleness and strength. The women in her poems are unencumbered by the societal norms of Millay’s time, and they appear to embrace their sexuality as a strength. Additionally, I found her use of the traditional sonnet to express her open, non-traditional views of sexuality thought-provoking. Further, throughout Millay's poems runs a well-expressed, emotional theme of loneliness. For instance, in the poem, "What Lips My Lips Have Kissed, and Where, and

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    Her poetry often explores parts of life through past and present as well as innocence and wisdom. They usually emphasize strong connections between imagination,…

    • 1274 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    She sharply admonishes females who criticize her wild and passionate flings, choosing instead to honor the traditional rules of their maternal role models who are ‘long necks Of neighbours sitting where their mothers sat” (5-6). Millay is proud of the critically acclaimed work she accomplishes during the day within the boundaries of “the lofty tower [she] labour[s] at,” but she is clearly unashamed of the sordid affairs in which she engages in the evening (3). The author readily accepts full responsibility for both her accomplishments and her transgressions acknowledging, “To what it is, this tower; it is my own” (10). She reprimands her critics who condemn her insatiable sexual appetite responding that those encounters are the stimulants which create the passion for her poetry. While her contemporaries may offer a more sterile, less scandalous alternative to her work, Millay’s poetry is the result of her personal experiences of “anguish; pride; and burning thought; And lust is there, and nights not spent alone”…

    • 755 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Edna St. Vincent Millay (1892-1950) wrote the "Ballad of the Harp-Weaver" published by Flying Cloud Press and has a copyright date of 1922. "The Ballad of the Harp-Weaver" is known as a Narrative Poem. Millay won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 1923. However, since Millay lived until 1950, her work is still under copyright in Canada and England. For "The Ballad of the Harp-Weaver" and several other works published in the early twenties, Millay won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 1923. Millay was born in Rockland, Maine and had lived in Greenwich Village, New York her whole life. "The Ballad of the Harp-Weaver" has exactly three pages and one hundred twenty six lines. Check out other Edna St. Vincent Millay poems, such as "First Fig" and "Renascence".…

    • 627 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Ella

    • 520 Words
    • 3 Pages

    In poetry, writers often feel or think with a purpose. In the poem, Ella in a Square Apron, Along Highway 80, written by Judy Grahn, there are significant words she uses in order to enhance the personification between women and animals. Along with the poem titled Aunt Jennifer’s Tigers, by Adrienne Rich, imagery is taken into consideration when reading into her representations of the feministic personality. Equally, these two poems relate feministic characteristics to those of animals through use of imagery while both are portraying women to reflect the skin of their concealed feelings.…

    • 520 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    The article “Poetry is Not a Luxury” by Audre Lorde talks about how important poetry can be to the human race. While most think poetry is just words put together, she romanticizes poetry into something much more. While she does say it is necessary for all, rather than a simple hobby; she tends to focus more on how it can affect the female race. The feminist theory is slowly weaved into this article. She allows us to believe that as an individual, my voice is who I am, who I can become.…

    • 305 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    “Dying is an art, like everything. I do it exceptionally well. I do it so it feels like hell. I do it so it feels real. I guess you could say I’ve a call” – Sylvia Plath. Sylvia Plath was born in Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts on October 27th, 1932 and died in London, United Kingdom on February 11th, 1963 at the age of 31 years old. Sylvia is well known for her astonishing poem such as “The Bell Jar” and “Daddy”. Her parents were Aurelia Schober, who was a student at Boston University and Otto Plath, who happened to be Aurelia Schober’s professor at the time (Academy of American Poets). “In 1940, when Plath was eight years old, her father died as a result of complications from diabetes. He had been a strict father, and both his authoritarian attitudes and his death drastically defined her relationships and her poems—most notably in her elegiac and infamous poem "Daddy."” (Academy of American Poets).…

    • 599 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    During the 1920’s, emerging liberalist women; women who were referred to as “flappers”, the emergence of term coincided with the rise of a new generation of post war women who desired to shake off the shackles of Edwardian repression and establish themselves as an independent force. With this movement, women of all ages awakened to the idea of sexual liberation and empowerment. This encouraged a wave of change that would motivate women for years to come to live their lives independently from men and create a generation of bold and confident women. Among these women was the late Edna St. Vincent Millay, an American poet born in the late 1800’s. As Millay was entering her prime of both emotional enlightenment and sexual power in the 1920’s, she began creating a series works transformed from expression of strong-willed individuals and independent women in some works, (The Lamp and the Bell, 1921), to more of a reflection of human emotion in others.…

    • 1240 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Often found within Nathaniel Hawthorne’s writings woman are depicted as beautiful, humble woman who are either suffering at the hands of strong willed, arrogant men. “A quiet, shy fellow prone to a genteel nature ill-suited to the aggressive competitive nature of the era 's masculinity, Hawthorne struggled to rationalize and justify his writing career with the imagined indictment of his Puritan forefathers that he was a ‘mere scribbler, a story-teller’” (Lucia).Within the 1820’s when Hawthorne’s writing was first being published the world was going through a shift within itself. In the midst of woman’s suffrage, women were being seen for more than just being capable of bearing children, and tending to homes. “Without delving too deeply into psychology and literary theory, by and large, writers write what they know - or what they associate most deeply with, even if only on a subconscious level. Bereft of a substantive father figure in his life, having to see his mother - a woman - always dependent on others, and growing up during this time of social, economic, and religious turmoil, it 's only logical to assume that Hawthorne would have a great affinity for the themes he was most familiar with: questions regarding sex, gender roles/submission to those roles, social class and standing, guilt and sin, and the consequences of stepping out of established social and gender roles” (Lucia). Within many of Hawthorne’s works there is a sense of misogyny, male supremacy especially through sexuality, and his constanttendency to infantilize women concentrating on “Young Goodman Brown” and“The Birthmark”.…

    • 1643 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Vincent Millay was writing, “I, Being Born a Woman, and Distressed,” there were many contemporary and personal events influencing this specific poem like the Women’s Rights Movement, Women’s Suffrage, the roaring twenties, and being raised by her independent mother. In the year 1920, the 19th Amendment allowing women to vote was passed, causing many to believe the Women’s Rights Movement was over when in reality, it had just begun. Although women had more of a voice in society and politics, they were still expected to act a certain way because of the simple fact that they were female. Edna Millay, being a feminist, had strong views on the “...portrayal of both hetero and homosexuality and... new kinds of female experience and expression.” (ed. Poetry Foundation, 1) Millay was greatly impacted by the time of Woman Suffrage that she believed, with her work, it was a must to oppose society norms and prove men and women to be equal. Also, the roaring twenties was considered one of the crazier era where people, especially women, began drinking, smoking, and saying certain things determined to be “unladylike” during that time. The poem, “I, Being Born a Woman, and Distressed,” was most likely influenced by the roaring twenties because her want or biological need of sex takes over, “...feel a certain zest To bear your body’s weight upon my breast...” (Millay, Lines 4-5) Finally, being 8 at the time of her parents divorce, Millay grew up seeing how independent her mother was which helped influence her feminist views and eventually impact how she wrote all her…

    • 1109 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Anne Kingsmills Finch is one the most significant published women poets prior to the Romantic Period. Her poetry clearly reflects her experiences and struggles along her witty personality and her candidness; her diverse work in poetry not only documents her personal struggles, but the social and political turmoil during that era. Undoubtedly, Finch’s greatness is due to the encouragement that she received from her family, husband, friends, and colleagues. Although education for women was neither common nor encouraged in the 17th century, her family placed great importance on her and her sister’s education of a wide range of topics even after their death. In addition, her husband, Heneage Finch, supported her writing. Even her friends and colleagues, both male and female, advocated for her to write and publish; they include Sarah Churchill, Anne Killigrew, Jonathan Swift, and Alexander Pope.…

    • 2182 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    By many, poetry is looked upon as being a language of its own. It’s a way of creatively expressing unique emotions, thoughts, and beliefs with the use of many literary devices. American poetry has been the most important form of writing throughout history. Many famous authors, such as Lucille Clifton, used poetry to document the most major times in history in which they lived, such as the Feminist Movement in the 1960s. During this time, women experienced a significant amount of gender discrimination and harassment, which inspired Lucille Clifton to incorporporate metaphors, similes, and symbolism in many of her poems to raise awareness about the power of women.…

    • 1819 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Often in poetry the technique of imagery is relied on heavily to present the reader with a visual stimulus that allows the poet to express a set of complex ideas. Poet Gwen Harwood utilises certain everyday images to illustrate the tendency of society to categorize the roles and expectations of females in the 1950’s. Some of her works such as ‘In the Park’, ‘Suburban Sonnet’ and ‘Dichterlibre’ draw on images of bickering children, household chores and tiresome motherly figures in order for the reader grasp some of the intangible concepts presented in the poems, such as the struggle for female independence in a patriarchal society and the social inequity experienced by the housewives and mothers of the 50’s. Harwood’s poetry gives voice to these drained women and entices the reader to take notice of the restrictions placed on a young mother by society’s expectations.…

    • 1301 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Although fiction has several underlying themes, poetry does as well. Poetry’s theme might even be a quite a bit more challenging according to the length of the literary work compared to that of a work of fiction. The theme is rarely pointed out. It is up to the reader to find the theme. Likewise Fiction, themes in poetry can also vary from each individual. The theme of woman and their roles in life throughout history have had a huge impact on literature. There are so many works that represent woman, whether it be positive or even negative. Furthermore, two extraordinary poems share a very powerful theme. In “Homage to My Hips” by Lucille Clifton and “Her Kind” by Anne Sexton, the theme of the oppression of women is apparent in both unique yet similar poems. Clifton and Sexton both have their woman mention what is expected of the typical woman in their societies. However, they both find their identities after all.…

    • 1049 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Capitalization in Gener

    • 1086 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Cited: Millay, Edna St. Vincent. [I, being born a woman and distressed]. Ferguson, M., Salter, M. & Stallworthy, J. The Norton Anthology of Poetry: Shorter 5th edition. New York: Norton, 2005. print.…

    • 1086 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    n the early to mid-1900’s, a young poet, Edna St. Vincent Millay, released a poetry collection that won her a Pulitzer Prize. Millay, well known for her progressive, feminist views included the poem, “I, Being a Woman and Distressed”. This piece tells a story of a woman struggling with the expectations of women of that day and the sensual feelings that are a part of her human body. Millay uses diction, tone, and imagery to illustrate the dichotomy between the desires she feels and the disgust she experiences for being uncontrollably drawn to a man and being expected to give up all her control to him.…

    • 844 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays

Related Topics