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Biography
Edna St. Vincent Millay was raised in a small Maine town
by a highly supportive divorced mother, who encouraged her
daughters to read, develop their musical talents, and follow
their ambitions. Millay graduated from Vassar College and
then moved to the Greenwich Village section of New York City,
home to avant-garde artists and political radicals. She acted
and wrote plays for the Provincetown Players, located in
the Village, and became known as the epitome of the modern
woman because of her vivacity, sexual liberation, and independent
spirit. She was also an activist who protested the Sacco
and Vanzetti executions and argued for America's early entrance
into World War II. Her works include Renascence and Other
Poems (1917) and her Pulitzer prize-winning Ballad
of the Harp-Weaver (1923).
Explorations
The anthology includes love sonnets, I Think I Should
Have Loved You Presently (1922) and [I, being born
a woman] (1923), in which a woman addresses a man.
There are plenty of love sonnets in the Anglo-American
tradition -- but the usual pattern is for these to be male
voices speaking to or about women; and when women poets
respond on the subject of love or sexuality, their poems
have traditionally been abstract and spiritual. Like Claude
McKay, Millay uses tight traditional forms to achieve
intensity: disturbing and heretical themes in poised, polished
stanzas. When she writes about love, passion, or faith,
she uses plain language; to read Millay is to experience
an often-astounding contrast between the urbanity and civility
of her lines and the surprising thoughts that erupt within
them. 1. Compare the language that Millay uses in the first
four or five lines of each of these sonnets. What differences
in tone and usage do you hear? How serious do you think
the speaker is at the opening of each poem?
2. At the end of [I, being born a woman], the
speaker suddenly breaks into her own verse with " -- let
me make it plain." Is there a shift in voice thereafter?
How does the closing of this poem comment on the language
and substance of its first dozen lines?
3. Do these two sonnets illuminate each other? When Millay
uses the word "love" in each of them, what does she mean
by it? What seems to be the larger social, cultural, and
moral context in which this "love" is contemplated or experienced?
Other sites to consult:
Edna
St. Vincent Millay: Renascence and Other Poems.
Millay's first book, posted on the Project Bartleby
site.
Collected
Poetry of Edna St. Vincent Millay. A collection
of forty short poems (most not included on the Project
Bartleby site).
Millay
bibliography. An Annotated Bibliography
of Works about Edna St.Vincent Millay (1974-1993),
With Supplement (1912-1973), compiled by Judith
Nierman and John J. Patton (University of Maryland).
American
Modernism. Includes a brief introduction,
materials on other writers of the time, and a bibliography
of works by and about Millay. From Paul P. Reuben's PAL:
Perspectives in American Literature site (California
State University, Stanislaus)
Edna
St. Vincent Millay. A detailed biography
and poems from Renascence. Site maintained
by Andrea Dunham.
http://www.poets.org/poets/poets.cfm?prmID=161:
Millay at the Academy of American Poets.
http://www.nybooks.com/articles/article-preview?article_id=15182:
A New York Review of Books review-essay on recent Millay
biographies.
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