Sonnet 29Edna St Vincent Millay

Done by William and Napon

Pity me not because the light of day

At close of day no longer walks the sky;

Pity me not from beauties passed away

From field to thicket as the years goes by;

Pity me not the waning of the moon,

Nor that the ebbing tide goes out to sea,

Nor that a man’s desire is hushed so soon,

And you no longer look with love on me.

This have I known always: love is no more

Than the wide blossom which the wind assails,

Than the great tide that treads the shifting shore,

Strewing fresh wreckage gathered in the gales:

Pity me that the heart is slow to learn

When the swift mind beholds at every turn.

Edna St Vincent Millay

• American lyrical poet and playwright feminist

• Received the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 1923 (the first woman to win the award for poetry)

• known for her activism and her many love affairs

February 22, 1892 – October 19, 1950

Edna St Vincent Millay

She had relationships with several fellow students during her time in college

In 1923 she married 43-year-old Eugen Jan Boissevain, a lawyer she met at college

Both Millay and Boissevain had other lovers throughout their twenty-six-year marriage

Millay's most significant relationship during this time was with the poet George Dillon, who was fourteen years her junior, and for whom she wrote a number of her sonnets.

Edna St Vincent Millay

• It is clearly shown that Millay has not been successful in her love life.

• Neither did her parents: her parents got divorced when Millay was 12 years old

• These may be some of the reasons why Millay’s perspective on love is so negative, and may have influenced her to express those feelings in “Sonnet 29.”

Sonnet

• A form of poem that originated in Europe, mainly Italy

• “Sonnet" derives only from the Occitan word sonet and the Italian word sonetto, both meaning "little song" or "little sound"

• It is poem of fourteen lines that follows a strict rhyme scheme and specific structure containing: Octave and Sestet

• “Sonnet 29” is a Shakespearian (or English with four quatrains and a rhyming couplet at the end)

Sonnet 29

• Shows a gradual tendency towards emotional and violent words, away from rationalization and logical thought.

• Rhyme Scheme: ababcdcdefefgg

Tone• Evokes feelings of sadness and loneliness that

reflect the poet’s sense of solitude and remorse of her relationship.• “Nor that a man’s desire is hushed so soon,

And you no longer look at me with love”• These lines suggest the shallowness of love. The

man may have once loved and desired Millay, but not anymore.

• This expresses Millay’s disapproval of love as it has seemingly drastic emotional repercussions on woman. Millay suggests here that the passing of love or the end of a man’s desire is a natural part of human life.

Literary Devices

Literary Devices

• Cyclical forces of nature are used as a metaphor for her version of the cycle of love that concludes a man’s love for a woman always ends• “Pity me not the waning of the moon”

• Moonlight is a sensuous setting as a base for her love relationships. “Waning” refers to fading. The waning of the moon can be seen as a loss of romance.

• This quote reinforces the idea of love as cyclical and doomed to fade with time. As a moon waxes and wanes, love relationships will germinate and die

Literary Devices

• Paradoxical as she moves from the rational mind to the emotional heart.• “Pity me that the heart is slow to learn

When the swift mind beholds at every turn”• This personification shows that even though she

knows that she should not be heartbroken as she was expecting this to happen, she still feels anguish and heart‐broken.

• The use of paradox and the uses “Pity me” instead of “Pity me not” and also uses a rhyming couplet in contrast from the previous lines allows Millay to give a significant ending to the poem to express her true emotional pain, and is asking for sympathy

Sonnet 29 and Sonnet 43

• Both express intense and powerful emotions about love

• They are written in the “Sonnet” form by female poets about their love life

• Audience• Sonnet 29- general audience (Millay wants to convince the reader

that love does not last)• Sonnet 43- audience of one as Browning shows her intense love

for her husband through the poem (the reader is an outsider in the poem)

• Repetition is used in both poems…• Sonnet 29: “Pity me not”• Sonnet 43: “I love thee”• The repetition used in each poem show an direct contrast of each

of the poet’s view on love

Sonnet 29 and Sonnet 43

• Sonnet 43, Elizabeth Barrett Browning expresses her unconditional love that not even death can overcome through the use of abstract images to present a powerful view of her feelings• “I shall but love thee better

after my death”• This shows that their love

is eternal and never ending. Not even death can overcome the powerful love they have for each other.

Sonnet 29 and Sonnet 43