Sonnet 29
Edna St. Vincent Millay
Pity me not because the light of day
At close of day no longer walks the sky;
Pity me not for beauties passed away
From field to thicket as the year 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.
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Paragraph 1 - Introduction – Include the title and author, a general explanation of the subject matter, a summary of what the poem is about, and what the key themes of the poem are (if there are any).
Paragraph 2 - Include detailed, stanza-by-stanza (or section-by-section, with line references) analysis of what is actually happening in the poem (without the greater depth of analysis coming later).
Paragraph 3 - Discuss the subtext and the implied. Look at the way that the poet hints at wider meaning, how a greater range of interpretation can be applied. This paragraph should lead in to the analysis of style in Paragraph 4.
Paragraph 4 - This paragraph should be a focused discussion of the way the poem is written and structured with regard to style – analysis of diction, rhythm and rhyme, figurative imagery, mood and tone, alliteration and assonance, the way that pace is controlled and atmosphere created – with detailed reference to the text in the form of quotation and line references.
Paragraph 5 - Link this poem with any other literature (especially poetry) you have read or studied. What are some common themes? In this case, you should be thinking especially about how this poem compares with Elizabeth Barrett Browning's "Sonnet 43".
Paragraph 6 - Conclusion – Discuss your overall feeling about the poem, its abiding images, and whether it is successful or not in what it sets out to do.
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ReplyDeleteEdna St Vincent Millay wrote the poem Sonnet 29, this poem has a series of metaphors which outline abandonment.
ReplyDeleteEvery two lines the poet repeats a metaphor of abandonment, ‘the light of day at close of day no longer walks the sky.’ This is because she feels deeply about her relationship stopping. Furthermore she includes a lot of enjambment throughout the poem; this is because she will never stop feeling deserted.
Edna St Vincent Millay is using capital R romantic, as she uses nature to portray her feelings; in this case she is using negative images from nature, as it is a poem about heartbreak. Also the cyclical rhyme pattern helps the poem move forward which portrays her life at the moment (about getting through life and overcoming emotions and lust), and at the end the couplet undercuts everything and changes the mood, as it is a positive comment as it shows what the head sees is different to what the mind sees.
The structure of the poem is the same as a Shakespearean sonnet as it written in iambic pentameter, so therefore it slows the poem down which gives it depth and emotion, which is suitable to a sad poem like this. Also she uses 10 beats per line to portray a clear point across as the rhythm and rhyme is ordered.
Sonnet 43 is a very similar poem as it has an ordered rhyming pattern however sonnet 43 the poet portrays that she loves him in every single way, the love is enormous. However sonnet 43 hasn’t got a terminal couplet, unlike sonnet 29. This is because in sonnet 43 the poet continues to love however in sonnet 29 the poet stops loving.
In conclusion I think that the poet uses very simple techniques to portray very detailed and difficult feelings, which is very effective
Holly Morrison
ReplyDeleteThe poem is called Sonnet 29 by Edna St Vincent Millay; the poem is about love and pity. She doesn’t want to be pitied for what happened, she wants to be pitied for the fact that she cannot come to terms with what has happened.
In “Pity Me Not,” Millay uses the cyclical forces of nature as a metaphor for her version of the cycle of love; a version that concludes a man’s love for a woman always ends. Her comparison, however, becomes paradoxical as she moves from the rational mind to the emotional heart. The first stanza begins immediately with her rational comparisons of nature to love. In the first two lines she looks at the sunset and one is reminded of the warmth love brings to life. Warmth that naturally fades as love dies.
Links in with various aspects of nature that come and go in a cycle - the moon, tide and blossoms etc. This relates to her having many lovers over the years, all of which have come and gone in a very similar cycle.
This is a Shakespearian rhyming pattern, ababcdcdefefgg, with a terminal couplet. The couplet holds the answer. As typical in so many sonnets, the couplet ends with a surprise and a tying together of all the elements of the poem above it. In the couplet she gets to the point of her real pain. “Pity me that the heart is slow to learn what the swift mind beholds at every turn.” Now she is clearly asking for sympathy. She knows that love will end.
Both Millay (Sonnet 29) and Browning (Sonnet 43) have experienced true love and have shown what it is by defining it in relation to life and nature.
It is depressing and it makes you think about, not what happens, but how people feel about what happens. There are lots of nature images, nature you can’t change. The poem helps you understand the feelings of Millay’s love and how she reacts to what happens, and how she choses others to react.
This is a sonnet written by Edna St. Vincent Millay. It tells about the pain that love causes and how even though you know this will happen.
ReplyDeleteThe poem starts of by telling you no to pity her for whats gone wrong in her love life by using many, many beautiful nature metaphors. However at the Petrarchan it all changes with her beginning to relent on her belief that she knew this was going to happen, her heart still felt the pain.
I think the poem is basically about even though you know that love will cause you pain at some points in your life. Your heart will still feel the pain.
This Shakespearean poem follows the same (ABAB) rhythm pattern as all Shakespearean sonnets do. Throughout the majority of the poem this has little effect (aside from the usual occasional awkward word pattern to fit the Iambic pentameter) though the final rhyming couplet does help to give a sense of finality. The repetition of “pity me not” helps to reinforce the view that
This poem links to many other poems about love and the pain it causes. It also connects to many sonnets because they’re all sonnets and sonnets are 99.99% of the time about love (nature) so it connect to them. Love poems are never happy if they’re in sonnet form. In particular I believe it connects to 'Sonnet 43', as it’s the only other sonnet on our syllabus about love. Other poems about love include 'The Voice' and 'Marrysong'.
So in conclusion this poem towards the beginning is just like any other going on about the pain that love causes. However, after the volta it changes to say that even though you know this is going to happen your heart still can’t take it.
Chris
Sonnet 29 was written by Edna St Vincent Millay-who was a feminist- in the 20th century, which would have coincided with the start of women’s suffrage. She was well known for her un-gentlewoman like behaviour, and believed that women were far too stereotyped. The key themes of the poem are how a man’s love dwindles and is not forever, and the pain that love causes. She uses various harsh metaphors related to nature and the elements; this implies the true extent of her pain.
ReplyDeleteLine one opens with “pity me not”; this is a strong opening. It is as if she is still upset from a previous relationship, this is emphasised by the next line, “the light of day, At close of day no longer walks the sky” The references to the “close of day” suggest that she truly is dismayed from the end of her relationship. However there is of course still hope for her, as the day/night cycle will always present another “day”. This metaphor of cycles is continued before the Volta, “ebbing tide goes out to sea” which is caused by the lunar cycle. The use of metaphor cycles shows that her lovers would come and go. This at the time would have been seen as very improper; this causes me to think that Millay is trying to make a point that women were not actually as they were portrayed in the Victorian era. “Pity me not” is then repeated twice more, this could be meaning that she does in-fact want to be pitied.
Millay uses the metaphor, “from field to thicket as the year goes by;” to describe her relationship. At the start of her relationship, it was beautiful and fertile, hence “field”. However as time goes on, the feelings in the relationship dwindle. It is by this, that the “field” which requires a lot of care and love becomes an overgrown thicket because of the break down in the relationship. This metaphor is an incredibly powerful one, and it gives us the impression that Millay was not good at relationships.
Millay writes the poem in Shakespearian Sonnet form, (which follows the rhyme pattern a,b,a,b,c,d,c,d,e,f,e,f,g,g) the most startling lines of the whole poem, are the last rhyming couplet. It is Millays emotional breakdown, “Pity me that the heart is slow to learn what the swift mind beholds at every turn.” She wants people to feel sorry for her; this is the only point in the poem where she shows any form of weakness, in by admitting that she still loves the man in her previous relationship. She has accepted that she can control her actions, “...swiift mind beholds at every turn” that logically she has no feelings for the man. However her, “heart is slow to learn” this is really saying that she cannot control her emotions. The terminal couplet also implies that she is done with love, yet the poem implies very differently. Again this shows the conflict over her mind and heart.
Sonnet 43 is written in the same Shakespearian form, however the meaning is very contrasting, sonnet 43 is all about loving him, whereas sonnet 29 is far more about failing relationships and the pain that comes with them.
I think that sonnet 29 uses Romantic metaphors very effectively in describing the failings of her relationships. It also causes me to “pity” her; she seems incapable of keeping a relationship.