Love Is Not All --

¶ … Love is not all" -- St. Vincent Millay

Edna St. Vincent Millay (1892-1950), was an American lyrical poet and the first woman to ever receive the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry. She was very bohemian in her life, having numerous lovers of both genders, and rather than supporting socialism or other European causes of the 1920s and 1930s, was often criticized for being pro-democracy. Her poetry, while traditional in form, often spoke openly about sexuality, social justice, and women's liberation -- all decades prior to these being considered appropriate subjects for polite society (St. Vincent Millay, 2008, intro).

Her poem, "Love is not all," is a magical journey that takes the reader from the general to the specific in trying to poetically define love. The physical structure of the poem is in 14 lines, or a sonnet. It is written in traditional form, using the rhyme scheme abab, cdcd, efef, gg. After reading a bit about her life, it seems that the poem is a bit of a reflection of the journey she took through different relationships -- all the while trying to define and hone a better explanation of love.

From a technical point-of-view Milay uses at least four poetic devices to weave her story:

Device

Definition

Use

Meaning for Millay

Alliteration

Repeating first consonant sound in neighboring words, connects line and flow

Many a man is making

Lack of love alone

Pinned down by pain

Past resolutions power

Sounds for emphasis, a chant that builds in drama as the poem unfolds

Imagery

Uses vivid and expressive language to evoke pictures

A roof against the rain

Thickened lung

Pinned down by pain

Rise and sink and rise and sink again

These are images of power, of nature, and not of peace and serenity, but of the power of the earth

Repetition

Multiple use of a word, phrase, sound or stanza

Not and nor Rise and sink and rise and sink

The letter b in "breath, blood bone"

The letter p in "pinned, pain, past, power, peace"

Connects the poem together and again, heightens the sense of drama

Rhyme

Similar sounds with structures

Drink -- sink

Rain -- again

Breath -- death

Bone - alone

Sonnet rhyme scheme

For Millay, her use of romantic language and vivid symbols, expresses a bit of frustration in being unable to define an emotion that can be very deeply felt, but not really seen, heard, or touched -- and most certainly one that most individuals have no control over. However, all through the poem we see that even though love is not tangible, it is nonetheless vital for our lives, even more important, according to Millay, than food, shelter or sustinence.

Her first two lines try to convince the reader that the two basic needs of life; food and shelter, are not love. Following we understand love is not transportation or comfort against the storm; it is not oxygen to keep our bodies alive, nor will it cure our medical ills. However, our first indication of the importance of love is "yet many a man is making friends with death, even as I speak, for lack of love alone." For Millay, then, while love cannot be eaten, drunk, or touched -- it can still cause someone to die.

The final stanzas of the poem turn a bit darker and rather than telling us what love is not, tell us what love can power over -- love can cure pain, but there are different types of love, and if, at the very last moment when one must choose between love and sustinence, it is likely best to choose love.

Additionally, the power of this poem is that it is universal; rather than being about two specific lovers, it is about romance and indirect -- the trials and tribulations of what lovers might expect: "Love is not all; it is not meat nor drink." Directly after this we are given to a wild oceanic storm, and can picture a man in the sea who is desperately struggling to survive against the dramatic power of nature. As the waves take him down and he struggles to grab hold of something tangible, all he things of is love. "Nor yet a floating spar to men than sink, And rise and sink again." Is love a blessing, or is love a curse? It is both -- it is neither.

Word choice is important in this poem to tell the reader that if one must define love only in the logical, one will fail. Millay expertly does this for us by using terms that are practical in nature, and part of our entire hierarchy of being:

Love does not:

Allow us to sustain our bodies -> meat or drink

Allow us shelter from the elements -> roof against the rain

Allow us a life-preserving object -> floating spar

Allow us air -> thickened lungs

Allow us rest -> slumber

Allow us to heal a wound -> Clean our blood or set a fracture bone