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| Edna St Vincent Millay 1892-1950
The American poet, Edna St Vincent Millay, was born in Rockland, Maine in 1892, one of three sisters. She specialised in lyric poetry that spoke directly to the senses and brilliantly made use of the Shakespearean 14-line sonnet form. That usually means three quatrains of four lines concluding with a couplet of two lines coming after a pivotal point (known as the 'Volta'), where a stark conclusion is made. This differs in structure from the Petrachian form, that is two stanzas of eight then six lines. This particular poem is actually a bit of a mix of both forms.
Love Is Not All by Edna St Vincent Millay
Love is not all: it is not meat nor drink
Nor slumber nor a roof against the rain;
Nor yet a floating spar to men that sink
And rise and sink and rise and sink again;
Love can not fill the thickened lung with breath,
Nor clean the blood, nor set the fractured bone;
Yet many a man is making friends with death
Even as I speak, for lack of love alone.
It well may be that in a difficult hour,
Pinned down by pain and moaning for release,
Or nagged by want past resolution's power,
I might be driven to sell your love for peace,
Or trade the memory of this night for food.
It well may be. I do not think I would.
So what's going on here? What is the poet saying to us with her eloquent iambic pentameter? Clearly she is making the case that, given the basic needs of mankind - food, shelter and health, love is further down the list of wants. It can't provide that roof or clean the blood nor can it "set the fractured bone". The reference to the filled lungs and cleaning of blood is probably a reference to tuberculosis which was prevalent at the time of publication, which was in 1931 during the Great Depression.
There are, however, elements of the Petrachian sonnet form here. In the eighth line the perspective changes sharply to the first person but then (back to Shakespearean) the final couplet expresses some doubt about what she has previously declared. She might, if necessary, swap this night of love for food but she doesn't think she would. After swaying to and fro she has ended on an ambiguous note. You can listen to the actress Tyne Daly (of Cagney and Lacey fame) reciting the poem here. There is also a clip of Edna herself reading the poem but her over-dramatic reading is almost too funny for me! |
Friday 2 March 2018
Love is not all by Edna St Vincent Millay
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12 comments:
I think she's recognizing that although we need food, shelter, and clothing, a life without love is a difficult one.
Sherry: Yes that's her uncertain conclusion but she wavers and oscillates through the poem. I think it's a very thoughtful and considered piece.
Love may not make the world go 'round, but it makes the trip more enjoyable.
Susan: "Les mots juste"!
Abraham Maslow's hierarchy of needs ((1943) is a theory in psychology. His multi-layer model of human needs, usually displayed to undergrads as levels within a pyramid, start at the lowest level with food, water, warmth and safety, and end at the highest level with love and self esteem.
Poets may have their heads in a different space from the rest of us, but Edna St Vincent Millay understood the real world well.
Hello Bazza, I think that she is clearly putting love at the top of the list. I can see some of the sardonic irony characteristic of Dorothy Parker, especially in the apples/oranges nature of the trade-offs for love.
It is interesting that in the several years prior to this poem. Millay and her husband had bought and rebuilt their house Steepletop in New York (now a combined Millay museum and study center). So she had lots of recent experience with making sacrifices (many financial) for shelter, but even then guests seemed more important to her than the house itself. All her life she could have put herself on a sound financial basis, but family, friends (and presumably lovers), and her own impulsive nature came first.
--Jim
Hels: I studied Maslow as part of my psychology degree and it should have rung a bell with me! I did think about the hierarchy of needs but Maslow didn't pop into my head; shame on me....
I'm not sure if the poets head is in the right place for me.
Sometimes the 'softer' things are what makes us human. When Churchill was asked to divert Arts funding into the war effort he asked "Then what are we fighting for?". To my mind that was his greatest moment!
Jim: That's some very valuable background, once again. Thank you!
I suppose that the thing about being ambivalent is that a short poem can be interpreted in so many different ways and none of them is right or wrong - just different. I like that.....
Hi Bazza - I really should go on a poetry course ... I'm always enticed, but never seem to find anything - perhaps while I'm out in Canada, I'll come across one ... I must see what's around ... thanks for introducing me to Edna and from the comments I want to check out more about her and her life - cheers Hilary
Hilary: A good starting point is Stephen Fry's book The Ode Less Travelled. It's a comprehensive overview of all the different styles of poetry and, as you might expect, an enjoyable read.
She's saying we do not technically need love to survive but without it we would surely die for life would not be worth living. *nods*
AC: Yes, I think you've nailed in the most economical way! It's as though she changed her mind halfway through the poem.
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