In class today, please write a commentary on Edna St. Vincent Millay's "Sonnet 29".
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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Your commentary should take the following form.
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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Sonnet 29
ReplyDeleteEdna St Vincent Millay
Sonnet 29 is a 14 lined poem written by Edna St Vincent Millay. Sonnet 29 is one of the Sonnets from Sonnets of the Portuguese. Edna St Vincent Millay was an American lyrical poet. She was born in 1892 and died in 1950. Sonnet 29 is basically about how the person she loves doesn’t love her anymore and how he shouldn’t pity her except that he doesn’t love her.
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.
These 5 lines are about how she is telling ‘him’ the guy she loves that he should not pity her. That even when she is going through some hard times he should not pity her. This to me shows how much she loves him because even though he doesn’t love her she still wants him to be happy in the sense that he won’t feel bad.
Nor that a man's desire is hushed so soon.
And you no longer look with love on me.
Here she is saying even again that she will still love him even if he doesn’t. these 2 lines also tells the reader that she loves him.
This have I known always: Love is no more
Than the wide blossom which the wind assails.
Here to me she is saying that her love is gone meaning him. I think this because to me by saying the blossom which the wind assails means that her love is gone.
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.
These last 4 lines are the highlight of the poem. They are the most dramatic and meaningful. The first two lines she again shows how much she loves him but then in the last two lines she shows that she is angry and upset that he left her or no longer loves her. She is showing this by saying that he should pity her. There is this effect because in the beginning of the poem she is explaining how he shouldn’t pity her but know she just wants him to feel her sorrow and agony.
The poem is written in a Shakespearean Sonnet form. There are 14 lines each with 10 syllables. She also wrote it in the rhyme scheme of a Shakespearean Sonnet would be written in. A Rhythm can easily be made up to go along with this poem. The diction of this poem is very simple but each line can be interpreted in many ways. It is clear from the beginning that it is about love but once you read what’s implied then it starts making sense. Knowing Edna’s past and life helps as it makes it easier to understand this poem. “Than the wide blossom which the wind assails.” This quote puts an image in my head of a flower flying away with the wind. Lots of images are made in my mind when I read this poem. Especially when she goes on about how he should pity her and about the sea and all the natural disasters she talks about.
This poem can be easily compared with Sonnet 43 written by Elizabeth Barret Browning. They are both about love. They are both about the love they have lost or don’t have and want back so bad. Both of these poems are written by females and in both of them they want LOVE. To me they are both two females who have been waiting for their Prince Charming to long.
This poem was interesting. Even though I don’t really like it when people make a huge fuss when they don’t have something they want. In a way its like Edna wants us to pity her. But then again she wrote this poem no for us to read but to express her love so it’s the way you see it. I enjoyed reading it and trying to decipher what ever she means which in the end I think i did quite well. There is so much to write about this poem.
Sonnet #29
ReplyDeleteSonnet #29 was written by Edna St. Vincent Millay. It is about her love towards “You”, being the person she loves, not the actual reader. Although, this seems as if it wasn’t written for the person as it talks about his love as a very bad way to love. One of the key themes of this poem is love, how he loves (Loved) her.
In the beginning she tells him not pity her because the sun goes down, because fields grow to thickets, the tide goes out and that the moon gets smaller. All of these things are natural occurrences and all undo themselves. The moon gets larger, the tide comes back and the sun will come back up. She also says not to pity her because a man’s love disappears quickly. After the 8th line, the Volta, it starts to get a bit worse after and talking about how the tide destroys and causes wreckage. Eventually she says to pity her because her mind knew that his love would disappear but her heart told her to love him.
When she says that the tide goes out and the sun goes down she seems to be implying that his love is like this but all of those things will come back, the sun comes back up. So she is saying that a man’s love is like the tide, it comes and goes. We can imply that he does not love her anymore, but she loves him. Later on she talks about how things like the tide are destructive, so she is hinting that love, being like the tide, is destructive. Throughout she talks as if he is bad for letting his love go away, but in the end she says that it seems to be her own fault, for letting her heart love in the first place.
This is a Petrarchan Sonnet meaning it has 14 lines, 10 syllables per line. The rhyme scheme is A B A B C D C D E F E F G G. The first two lines are one sentence talking about one thing not to pity her for, and the same for the next two and then it goes onto saying ‘Nor’ for the fact that the tide goes out and that a man’s love disappears so soon. At the Volta she goes from talking about these things to talking about how some of these things, like love are destructive. The way she says don’t pity her for something, and then explains that something gives it a strange feeling but is seems like it is necessary for the rhyming to work.
This is very similar poem to Sonnet #43 by Elizabeth Barret Browning. They both talk about love but Sonnet #43 talks about how she loves the person and Sonnet #29 is about how someone else doesn’t love her anymore. In Sonnet #43 this it was written as a secret poem to a lover while this poem seems to be openly confronting the reader about something like a break up. They both seem to be in a sort of list form, with 2 lines per each item and they are of course listing different things.
I think that this poem was very well written but I don’t like what the writer was saying. She seems to say that only men fall out of love and seems to be implying that women never do, which I would doubt. Although I still liked how the poem was written.
Sonnet #29
ReplyDelete‘Sonnet 29’ is written by Edna St. Vincent Millay, and it tells us about how she loves “You” and You means the person she loves and that he does not love her the same way. The poem seems to be written as though she is talking about how this person’s love for her is wrong. One of the key themes to this poem is ‘Love’ as she mentions how he does not love her like before.
In the beginning she starts off by saying that you should Not Pity Her for the sun coming up, the fields grow into thickets at the end of the year, that the moon grows smaller, and that the tide goes out to sea. A similar aspect of these lines is that they are all Natural Occurrences and that they all cancel each other out since the sun goes down, thickets get cut down back into fields, the moon grows larger and the tide comes back in. She also says to Pity Her not for a man’s desire is hushed so quickly, the poem takes a slight turn when after the 8th line she talks about how his love is destroying things, as the wind blows away the blossoms and the great tide destroys and bring wreckage upon the shore. Near the end she then says to Pity Her for that her Heart is slow to learn that love is not always what it seems to be and that her mind always knew this.
When she says “From field to thicket as the year goes by” she could mean that since the field turns into a thicket it doesn’t look beautiful as if it were a field, when she mentions how the sun goes up, you know that the sun will come down again so this might imply that love can go ‘Up’ or ‘Down’ or in other words Love can be good or it can be bad. When she says “Nor that a man’s desire is hushed so soon.” She is saying that even though a man’s desire is hushed so soon it is not hushed all at once, it simply takes its time. At the end she says that her heart was slow to learn where as her mind always knew that he did not love her the same way, but the heart doesn’t want to believe that and that’s why she says to Pity Her for that reason.
This is a Petrarchan Sonnet, so the Rhyming pattern is A,B,A,B,C,D,C,D,E,F,E,F,G,G and it has 10 syllables in each line. The poem uses a lot of imagery especially in the beginning as she describes the natural occurrences in detail so that you can get an idea of what is happening, like “Pity me not the waning of the moon, Nor that the ebbing tide goes out to sea.” The poem uses “Nor” and “Pity Me/Not” quite a few times and this shows that she is saying a long list if things not to pity her for, like “Nor that a man’s desire is hushed so soon.” I do not think that this poem is fast as the it is explaining how his love is no longer what it used to be.
This Poem is quite similar to the poem of Elizabeth Barret Browning’s Sonnet #43, as they both talk about love but, Sonnet #43 talks more of how She (Elizabeth) loves another person, where as Sonnet #29 talks more of how His love to Her (Edna) and both of the poems use a list form to describe the ways in which love is used.
As I said before I do not like these kind of poems that much but I thought that it was well written and that it explains many of the natural occurrences in such a detail that I could imagine them immediately . All in all I did like this poem as it interested me, perhaps reading more might change my ways of thinking about them.
Sonnet 29 by Edna St. Vincent Millay
ReplyDeleteThis sonnet was published in her collection The Harp-Weaver and Other Poems, which is what she received the Pulitzer Prize for in 1923. It is probably directed to her lover at the time.
In the first 7 lines Millay is telling someone not to feel bad for her for numerous natural reasons that no one could be able to control. The line ‘Pity me not because the light of day’ is one place where she is saying not to pity her, when the sun cannot decide whether to come up or not. It is a natural course of things. Whereas, in the next 7 lines, she is saying the opposite, actually giving the feeling that makes you want to pity her. In the second to last line she says ‘Pity me that the heart is slow to learn,’ which is where she is ASKING for pity.
With the first couple of lines, she is saying that you can’t really pity her for the natural course of things. For example, the sun rising, the moon waning, etc. But then at lines eight and nine, she is saying that she feels no more love from him, and the poem suddenly changes or turns. Further on, the lines: ‘Nor that a man's desire is hushed so soon. And you no longer look with love upon me,’ implies that men fall out of love, which then the next line and the last two lines say that as he fell out of love, she fell in it. ‘Pity me that the heart is slow to learn, When the swift mind beholds at every turn,’ is Millay saying that her mind was expecting it, while on the other hand, her heart was not.
This poem was written as a Shakespearean sonnet, with the rhyme scheme being as ababcdcdefefgg, and 10 syllables per line. The poet, Edna St. Vincent Millay, also makes the poem seem rather dark and depressing with the words/diction that she had used. For the first 7 lines, you can picture most of what she is saying. For example, in line 1 ‘Pity me not because the light of day, At close of day no longer walks the sky;’ it gives the image of a sun rising and then finally setting at the end of the day. That goes the same for lines three, four, five, and six. For lines three and four, she paints the image of a field that dies or becomes dried out over time into your mind. In lines five and six, it makes you think about how the moon gets smaller at certain times of the month, and how the ‘ebbing tide goes out to sea.’ The poem also gives of the image of a woman in unrequited love.
ReplyDeleteThe literature that I would pair it with would be Sonnet 43 by Elizabeth Barret Browning, because they are both talking about love in some way. But they are talking about it in two different ways. Millay is talking about the man’s love towards her, while Browning is talking about her love towards ‘him’ or ‘thee’. At first glance, without knowing about the background information, they could both be about an unrequited love. This, for Elizabeth Browning, was true at the beginning, while Millay is talking about how the one she loved fell out of love with her. So, in a way, the poems are complete opposites. Yet by knowing one, you can sort of understand the other more. I see Sonnet 43 as a more positive or ‘happy’ version of sonnet 29, which is quite negative.
Whenever I think of Sonnet 29, I instantly have a dark image in my mind, or a more negative one. The images that it sends to me is mostly of nature with the first seven lines, and I think it is quite successful with what it was set out to do. It made me feel rather sorry for Millay, which is what the poem seemed to be made to do.
--Tatiana 9A.
PART 2
Sonnet 29
ReplyDeleteThe title of this sonnet is called Sonnet 29, which was written by Edna St. Vincent Millay. She was a very famous poetic writer, mainly for love poems / sonnets. The reason that it is called ‘Sonnet 29’ is because it was the 29th sonnet she ever wrote, and didn’t really give it an original name. She was born on the 22nd of February in 1892 and died on the 19th of October in 1950 (she basically died at the age 58).
There aren’t any stanzas in Sonnet 29, as it isn’t a poem, but a sonnet. It is written in a more continuous way with the sentences. In the first 7 lines of the sonnet, she is telling her ‘love’ to not pity her for the list she gives, and she also describes in a way how she feels for him. In the last 7 lines, she is mostly talking about the man’s love for her. As an example, in lines 3 and 4 she says “Pity me not for beauties passed away, from field to thicket as the year goes by” she is saying something that has to do with flowers or fields, because on line 4 she is saying ‘from field to thicket as the year goes by’ which probably means that from a nice field, it turned into a thicket (a place with thorns, brambles and other unpleasant plants).
The poet is implying something new in every line. For example in the first 2 lines, she is saying that he shouldn’t pity her for when the night comes and when the sun sets which according to her, is something bad. I think that all of her lines have to do with nature and the forces of it. Another example can be lines 3 and 4, which also has to do with nature (from field to thicket as the year goes by). Edna St. Vincent Millay is obviously expressing / comparing her love with nature, and same with the man’s love for her. A third example of lines 5 and 6 can be that the moon is getting smaller, and that the tide is going out to see as if the man’s love for her is the tide, that went away forever.
The poem is written in a Shakespearean love sonnet. The sonnet is also a Shakespearean sonnet, because of the rhyme scheme; A, B, A, B, C, D, C, D, E, F, E, F, G, G. The imagery that it brings up whilst reading it all has to do with the forces of nature, because she mentions things such as the moon, fields, tides and the sea all the lines. It creates an atmosphere because of the way she describes her love for him, and his love for her comparing nature.
This sonnet can also be linked to Sonnet 43 which was written by Elizabeth Barret Browning in the year of 1850. They are similar because they are both love sonnets and they are both describing their love for the man they love. There are a few differences between them, one of them can be that for Sonnet 29, she describes her love for him in the first 7 lines, and then describes his love for her in the last 7 lines. In sonnet 43 she is describing her love for him only all the way through the sonnet. Also in sonnet 29, she uses nature as a theme but in sonnet 43, she uses events that happened in the past.
Overall, I liked this poem quite a lot and didn’t mind reading it. It is really good the way she describes her love with nature, as it is always hinting things for you but you are never 100% sure of what she is actually trying to send across as a message. I also liked the structure, such as the way she describes her love for him in the first 7 lines and his love for her in the last 7 lines. It was also hard to follow in some parts, as I had a lot of conclusions of what the idea could’ve been, but that is what made the sonnet more interesting for me to read.
Sonnet 29
ReplyDeleteSonnet 29 was written by Edna St Vincent Millay. It is one of the sonnets from Sonnets of the Portuguese. She was a lyrical poet who was born in 1892 and died in 1950. The main idea of the poem is that a man does not love her anymore and that he should pity her for things she cannot control but he should pity her because he does not love her anymore.
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 neither 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. These first five lines are the first lines where she is telling him not to pity her, even though she is going through hard times getting over him. This also shows how much she still loves him even though he does not and that she should be happy with him feeling bad. Nor that a man's desire is hushed so soon. And you no longer look with love on me. In these two lines she is showing us that she still loves him even though he does not, and he no long looks with love on her. This have I known always: Love is no more
than the wide blossom which the wind assails. Here she is trying to show that she does not love him too much anymore by showing what love means to her. 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. These are the last four lines which mean the most. She is actually telling him what he should pity her for; after all she didn’t want him to pity her. It is the perfect ending to show how much he has hurt her.
The first two lines are a good beginning to the sonnet, they are not very meaningful but you get an idea of what the poem is about. Then as she goes on through it you start to get another image which is more powerful and meaningful, and then as the poem reaches the last four lines, they are the most meaningful and they give the true meaning of the poem and what it was written for.
This poem is written like a typical sonnet, with 14 lines and 10 syllables on each line. The diction of this poem is very simple but each line could be interpreted in different ways. It is hard to understand the main idea of the poem in the beginning but after a while it becomes obvious that it is about love. After we spoke about Edna’s past loves, everything fell into place and it was easier to understand the poem.
This poem can easily be compared with Sonnet 43, they both have a theme of love and both speak about how a man should love and the way they have experienced different types of love, going in and out of them, and also about how men should love them and if they don’t, how they should pity them.
Over all, I liked reading this poem, it was confusing to understand though. The only thing I did not like was the way she was bragging about how he loved her and then suddenly he didn’t and the image was only on her. It was as if she was putting up a fight, which she ended perfectly. But she made her point well and wrote it in a very stimulating way.
Rosie.
The poem is called “Sonnet 29”, and the author of this poem is Edna St. Vincent Millay. The poem was published in the beginning of twentieth century. The subject mattering is a break up between a couple, and supposing the author wrote a poem about her and her lover that fell out of love.
ReplyDeleteIn line 1 the author is addressing herself to the reader/her lover, and she tells him not to pity her because the sun goes down. In line two she speaks about the sky. In third line she speaks about pitying herself again, and in fourth line she is referring to the nature again. In fifth line she is speaking about pitying herself, then sixth line about nature, and in seventh line about a man who doesn’t want her anymore. In eighth line she is again speaking about a man who doesn’t love her anymore. Then in line nine she says that she was aware that he would fall out of love. In line ten she compares love to a flower which is being destroyed by wind. In line eleven she is speaking about nature again, so as in line eleven. In the last couplet she is speaking about her heart and he mind, meaning that even though your mind is aware of a break up(possibly), the heart is full of hope.
The poem’s meaning is possibly a break up, the death of love in other words. She is feeling sorry for herself because she has to live through a break up, but at the same time she isn’t angry at the person who doesn’t love her, because she knows that love is not forever, which is sad. So the poem is about how love is, she compares love a lot to the subjects in nature.
The poem is rhyming sometimes, the words that rhyme are: day/away, sky/by, moon/soon, sea/me, more/shore, assails/gales, and learn/turn, and it has the Shakespearean rhyme scheme. It has a rhythm which is not too fast, and not slow at the same time. The mood is sad, and the tone is the poem seems loud to me because she is trying to say it to one particular person. In this poem the author used a lot of reference to the nature:
“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.
---------------------------------------------
----------------------------------------------
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Than the wide blossom which the wind assails.
Than the great tide that treads the shifting shore.
Strewing fresh wreckage gathered in the gales:
-------------------------------------------------
--------------------------------------------------“
So the missing lines are the ones about love, and the existing lines are the ones about nature.
The other piece of literature is I think this love poem, even though it is not the same it also speaks about lost love which was before. The difference is that this poem is speaking how “bright” the love was before, and Sonnet 29 is just speaking about love breaking up.
What happened to our love?
It used to be so bright
Loving, laughing, caring
Then soon caught the night
You were my one and only love
Cared for you too much
Then something happened
And slept with that man
You deceived me
I never felt so desperate
But I try to forgive you now
And try not to think about before
I love you so much
It just hurts to ponder now
Everything I have
Is because of you
Everything I bought
Was because of you
I just love you so much
I'm scared to lose you
by Gary R. Hess
I really enjoyed this poem. It is very interesting to read, because many people break up and it is a common theme, but the poem is interesting because the author refereed a lot to the nature, and also because she isn’t putting much anger of her love, which is strange, because if someone falls out with you, you would hate them. Very good poem.
Edna St. Vincent Millay Poetry Commentary Sonnet 29
ReplyDeleteThe collection of Edna St. Vincent Millay who was born in February 22, 1892(1892-02-22) and she died in October 19, 1950 (aged 58)is The harp weaver and other poems, she received for that a Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 1923. She wrote many Sonnets to George Dillon.
In the first 7 lines of the poems it is about pity me not for like the natural things that happened in the world like what just happened every day. The second lines is about that ‘a man’s desire hushed so soon’ and ‘that you no longer look with love on me’ and then it is the opposite it is about pity me for this and another things like ‘that the heart is slow to learn’ .
The first words is about the things that happen every day and then she is talking about that you don’t have to pity for that. Nor that a man’s desire is hushed so soon. And you look no longer with love on me. That means that a man fell out of love with her so she is talking about her brake up with him. And then it is saying ‘This have I known always love is no more than the wind assails’ and ‘pity me that the heart is slow to learn’. So it is about that she knew that he would fell out of love with her but her heart is to slow to learn that it is over so her heart didn’t expect that. And you see that also on the last line: ‘When the swift mind beholds at every turn.’ That her mind was expecting that and her heart not.
The poem is written as a Shakespearean poem like the ababcdcdefefgg. And per sentence she has 10 syllables in each line, like for example: ‘pity me not for the waning of the moon’ and then a different rhyme in the next sentence and then ‘Nor that a man’s desire hushed so soon’. And the tone of the poem is very dark because first it is about ‘Pity me not because the light of day’
‘At close of day no longer walks the sky’. So it is about that the sun isn’t shining but it goes away. And she talks about how the field changed in thicket so it dies. And it also tells about what the moon is doing every year etc. and also about ‘Nor that the ebbing tide goes out to sea’. The other lines is about herself about the woman who talks about the man who felt out of love and that her heart doesn’t get that. L
The two poems from Edna St. Vincent Millay and Elizabeth Barret browning. The same is that they are both talking about love but that is in different ways. Sonnet 29 is about who doesn’t love her anymore and it seems like it is a brake up. Sonnet 43 is about how she loves someone and sonnet 29 uses nature and sonnet 29 is more a negative poem and it has more a dark side because the man doesn’t love her anymore. And the other poem sonnet 43 is more a happy poem and you see that on how she describes how she love him, and it is writing by females J
The poem was quitte interesting, by what she means and you want to know the history why she wrote the poem.The things of nature (what nice was to read) what she means is nice but it was a little confusing because first she says don’t pity me of.. and than suddenly she starts with pity because of… so that thing I didn’t understand that so much. And it was a dark poem she is saying that man can fall out of love but woman can also right? So that is my opinion! J
Anne-Mieke. x
Poetry Commentary - Sonnet 29
ReplyDeleteThis poem is called "Sonnet 29" and it is written by Edna St. Vincent Millay (born 1892) made in 1923. Sonnet 29 is about love, and how it is not really worth it. It looks like it is about a break-up of a couple. The key subjects are love, pityfullness, the moon, and a little about nature.
This is a shakespearan sonnet, so it doens't have any stanzas. In the first section the lines mainly concist of the 'pity me not' lines. The first 2 lines are about how the day is light and how it sets probably explaining how the love is setting on the couple. In the lines 3-4 she explains how people have died/ passed on every year with the transfer of seasons. In lines 5-7 she is describing the moon and have it orbits the earths turning tides into the sea, this to her, representing the love between the people. In lines 8-10 she explains a man doesn't have the passion anymore to love her, and that when he looks at her there is no love left. At the volta (turn) of the poem she starts explaining love in similes and that love isn't that special and meaningful as people say it is. Here she includes subjects related to nature like 'blossoms', 'wind, 'tide', and 'shore'. In the last 3 lines she first tells how the 'wreck' of their love is spread over the gales, all shattered in pieces, not with them anymore. Then it continues of her saying
'pity me', the only time she says that and not 'pity me not'. Here she shows how she blames herself for this breakup and that her mind knew anyway before that the love was going to end.
There are many hints of wider meaning in this poem. Throughout, she tells how the love is ending. Like in the first 2 lines it is about the day setting. But if you look more in depth, the sunset, could represent their love about to end upon them. Sunrise wouldn't fit to it since its a positive part of the day, but sunset, in a way, is kind of saddening to your mind. Line 7 could create a very in-depth discussion about the way men handle with love. In our class we definitely had it that way, talking about if men were always this way, ending love so fast. It could also mean that in the beginning of the love between 2 people they are deeply in love, but in time they will always lose it some way or another. To look at a whole overview of the poem it is mainly describing how the reader should not pity her for her loss of love, except for the end in the 2nd to last line, 'Pity me that the heart is slow to learn'. Here she is telling to reader to pity her and feel sorry for her because she feels that it is her fault she didn't know that this breakup would happen, and that her heart should of known.
There is a lot of diction is the poem related to the moon and nature. As i have listed down before, examples of it are 'tides', 'blossom', 'moon', 'wind'. She is making nature and elements of the world are representing the love among people. There is a good steady rhythm in this poem since it is a shakespearan sonnet. Some people might think it also sounds kind of song- like. I would agree on this. The rhyme scheme is just like a typical structure of a shakespearan sonnet; A,B,A,B, C, D, C, D, E, F, E, F, G, G. There is some figurative imagery in this poem, like for example line 10, ' Than the wide blossom which the wind assails', you can imagine how the petals of a blossom/flower is tearing away by the wind and flying off into the air, going in to infinity. The mood and tone of the poem is very sad, and a tad depressing being that their love is fading away, resulting into a break-up. I can find one example of alliteration in this poem; 'longer look with love'. But there is not much else alliteration to find in this poem. Atmosphere in this poem is created throught the author giving off a lot figurative imagery of nature, giving off a kind of beautiful sadness to it. (continuing)
(continued) To link this poem with other literature we looked at the other sonnet by Elizabeth Barrett Browning, "Sonnet 43". There is a huge comparison in the 2 thought they have one key theme in common; love. In sonnet 43, Elizabeth is talking about the different ways of love and how beautiful and everlasting it is. While in this poem, Edna is telling the readers how pityful love is, and it is all not worth it. Love is not at all as amazing as some people think it is. In sonnet 29 she is discussing the negative part of love, while in sonnet 43 it is all about the positive effect of love. The structure of the 2 poems are also quite different. Sonnet 43 is a so called, Italian sonnet, not having the exact properties of a proper shakespearan sonnet which is what sonnet 29 is structured as. The rhyme schemes are all very different and as well the rhythm.
ReplyDeleteMy personal opinion to this poem is that it is a very beautiful piece of poetry that is actually all about the sad things about love and how dissapointing it can be to some people. I really loved how she used a lot of examples of nature and the moon in her work to represent the sad love that has gone away. She used very good diction in the poem and kept it in a good pace and rhythm just like a shakespearan sonnet should be.I also enjoyed it because the language wasn't in the classic shakespearan language like Sonnet 43 was in. It was simple to read and quite easy to understand. But when we went in more depth of the poem, i got to admit, it got a bit more confusing. Otherwise, i really liked this sonnet :)
Sonnet 29 – Edna St. Vincent Millay
ReplyDeleteSonnet 29 is a sonnet the rhymes about love. It was written in the 1920s by Edna St. Vincent Millay. The poem is about love and how she thinks men leave her. She shows all the natural ways of what she thinks men are and what it feels like when they leave her. She is talking about the love of men, how it comes and goes so quickly.
In the First line she says, “Pity me not because the light of day at close of day no longer walks the sky;” She means that she is talking about why she it pitying herself and why the reader must feel sorry for her. Also the light of day might mean that many men loved her and the next day they set eye on another woman and they stopped loving her and she is showing all her sadness. In the third and fourth line she says “Pity me not for beauties passed away, From field to thicket as the year goes by;” She means that she is saying all the NATURAL ways the men are leaving her and what she feels. In the fourth line she is giving a list of ways she is feeling sad for herself and what the men are feeling as well in “Nor that a man’s desire is hushed so soon.” She is also showing that nobody must feel sorry for her in the fifth, sixth and seventh lines. She is also implying that she is very sad and also a bit about men and how their love is short and so they stop loving then they suddenly start to love her again and the love comes back. In the line of the “And you no longer look with love on me” she is implying that the man’s love is ending so quickly. When she talks about “This I have always know” she is implying that she always knew the breakup would happen because she had experienced it before. In the next line she is showing natural ways of how their love fades away and sails away. She is now, in last 2 lines, is showing that the heart learn by time and is slow but the mind understands more quickly and so she is asking the reader to pity her.
The poet writes the poem to show the love of men. She shows how slow and hard it is for it to understand. But she also talks about her breakups with them and she also shows that she has had many. She shows natural ways of why she broke up with them and when they left her. The poem is written in a Shakespearean rhyme scheme. The rhyme scheme is A,B,A,B,C,D,C,D,E,F,E,F,G,G. The poem also has enjambment in it. It makes the B lines stronger; this could not be done in an Italian sonnet. The structure is in octets and sestets. The first is an octets and the second is a sestet. The split is called a Volta. The sonnet repeats the words pity me not 3 times. The sonnet is about breakups which gives it a very sad atmosphere.
This poem reminds me of sonnet 49. Maybe because we did both of them here but also because it talks about love. It also reminds me about how Elizabeth wrote it, because the style is similar.
The poem is very interesting because it shows love and passion and how men constantly break up with her. She shows what she feels when they break up with her. It was a very strange poem but it showed love nature and a very dangerous side to nature.
Sonnet 29
ReplyDeletePoetry Commentary
Caroline Schiller
Part1
The poem “Sonnet 29” was written by Edna St Vincent Millay (1892-1950) in the 1920s. It is mainly about love, but also about nature. The poem is something like a ‘break-up-poem’.
The poem starts with “Pity me not…” and this phrase is repeated two more times and once there is written “Pity me…” In the first line she says that we shouldn’t be sorry for her because the sun goes down, in the third line she writes that we shouldn’t pity her because with time a field gets overgrown, and in the fifth line she tells us we shouldn’t pity her because the moon wanes. But after she has listed up these natural happenings, she says ‘nor that a man’s desire is hushed so soon’. From this general statement she then turns to one person. She wrote “And you no longer look with love on me”. Then she writes more about love and what it is in her eyes. She compares love with a wide blossom and a great tide. The she tells us what she wants us to pity her for which is that ‘the heart is slow to learn’. She thinks that the mind learns faster than the heart.
The listing of the natural happenings we should not pity her for at the beginning of the poem and then the line “Nor that a man’s desire is hushed so soon” makes this sound like some kind of natural phenomena. In other words, she’s saying that we should not pity her about all these natural phenomena because we can’t change them anyway, and it’s the same with the man’s desire. We can’t change anything about the ‘fact’ that it will be hushed soon. The natural happenings all describe something seasonal, something that comes and goes all the time (sun goes down/up, the tide comes/goes…) but she always took the more negative phenomena. She thinks that the man’s love is the same. It comes and goes again. But she thinks about it in a negative way. That she uses the word ‘desire’ instead of ‘love’ shows us that she not really thinks that men love but just feel the ‘want’/ desire for women. And she also thinks that it stops soon. She seems to have had a lot of experience with men that have turned out to not love her after a while anymore.
From that general statement, she then goes on to a personal experience. She wrote ‘And you no longer look with love on me’ in line eight and so she is now talking to one person. She then writes about love. She compares it to a wide blossom and the great tide. In line eleven she mentions ‘wreckage’ and probably she compares this to her relationship which didn’t work. Then she writes ‘Pity me…’ instead of ‘Pity me not..’ and she says she wants to be pitied that ‘the heart is slow to learn’. She tells us that she still loves the man but he doesn’t love her anymore. And the last line tells us that her mind was already prepared but her heart wasn’t. She already knew that this was going to happen, but her heart still got hurt.
Caroline Schiller
ReplyDeletePart2
The poem is written as a Shakespearean sonnet. It has 14 lines and each has 10 syllables. The rhyme scheme is A B A B C D C D E F E F G G. The writer used many comparisons in this poem. She compared love to blossom and tide and there is some kind of relation between the man’s desire and all the natural phenomena. The atmosphere is sad and the poem is very pessimistic. After line 8 there is a turn because suddenly he talks about the whole subject in a different way. She there starts to tell us about her view of love. In lines 10 to 13, a more chaotic and dramatic atmosphere is created with words like ‘wind’, ‘shifting shore’, ‘ wreckage’ and ‘gales’. The two last lines make the poem sound finished because after the writer has listed all the things she does not want to be pitied for, she finally says what she wants to be pitied about.
Elizabeth Barrett Browning's "Sonnet 43" can be compared to this poem. Both poems are about love. But they have a completely different view of love. Elizabeth describes love as something permanent, that even after love will still exist. And she thinks that love is something really special and probably something you only have once in a lifetime. However, Edna talks about love as something that can not last forever (especially men’s love). And she thinks that every love is the same and that every love will be hushed after a while. And she does not even say that it’s love what the men feel, she says it’s just a desire. Then Elizabeth also only talks about her love and how she feels about the man. Edna talks about the man’s love or his ‘not-love’. Only in the very last lines she mentions her own love and how she feels about him.
I liked this poem especially after we have worked with it because then I have understood what it is about. Now I see a deeper meaning of this poem than at the beginning when I just read through it.
Part 1 :)
ReplyDeleteSonnet 29 was written by Edna St.Vincet Millay in the early 1920’s. The poem is basically about a break up and her telling this person that has broken up with her, not to pity her. The main themes are heartbreak, hope, love and disappointment.
The poem starts off with “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” she is basically saying not to pity her because there’s no sun light, don’t pity her because seasons are changing and the crops start to die and don’t pity her because the moon start’s to get smaller. The next three lines are “nor that the ebbing tide goes out to see, nor that a man’s desire is hushed so soon and you no longer look with love on me.” This is when she starts to pity herself by saying you no longer look with love on me and she keeps reminding this person the poem is for not to pity her when the sea goes out and not to pity her when a man’s feelings suddenly change. “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” here she tells us that she knew the love was going to end and becomes more destructive when describing the sea and wind. In the last 2 lines “Pity me that the heart is slow to learn when the swift mind beholds at every turn” she’s basically saying pity her because she fell for it again and went with her heart, and not her head.
The basic idea of the poem is don’t pity her because everything can change suddenly without knowing, pity her because she knew it was coming and she fell for it again. She starts off with the poem by describing things such as the sun setting and the moon waning, these things come back after a period of time though and she compares this to a man’s love by saying ‘nor that a man’s desire is hushed so soon’ meaning men usually change their mind about often and quickly. This also shows us that, you know the sun is going down meaning she knew this would happen, but she just fell for it again and can’t blame anyone else but herself. The second half of this poem becomes a little more destructive when she says things such as “strewing fresh wreckage gathered in the gales” this is showing us that love can be a very destructive thing and also she is mad, but most likely at herself for falling into something like this once again. The last 2 lines she is basically saying that her mind knew it was going to happen but her heart believe it wouldn’t, and this is showing us that sometimes you just go with your feelings.
Part 2 :)
ReplyDeleteThe poem is written in Shakespearean form and has 14 lines each having 10 syllables. The rhyming scheme is also like a Shakespearean sonnet which is A,B,A,B,C,D,C,D,E,F,E,F,G,G. Understanding this poem is quite easy once you read through a few times. You can instantly see it is about love and a break-up or misunderstanding. The mood seems to change from calm to destructive and many pictures come to mind when reading this poem, the blossom flying away in the wind, the sun going down, the moon and tide going out and all the natural disasters she mentions like wreckage and such.
The poem is easily compared to sonnet 43 as they are both about love, but different types. Sonnet 43 is about Elizabeth Barret Brownings love where as Sonnet 29 is about Edna St.Vincent Millay’s love towards someone else. Elizabeth Barret Brownings poem is talking about how much she loves a certain someone and she cannot express how much in love she is, where as Edna St.Vincent Millay’s poem is about a break up and how she doesnt want this person to pity her and how she knew the break up was coming. The common things are love.
In all i think the poem was a good one and quite interesting to read, the main thing she wanted to send across to us readers was that she expected this happening and she cannot blame anyone but herself. I think she expressed this easily and all the readers knew what she was talking about.
Sonnet 29
ReplyDeleteEdna St Vincent Millay
The sonnet 29 is written by Edna St. Vincent Millay. Who was an American lyrical poet, she was famous for her unconventional, bohemian lifestyle and her many love affairs. She was born in 1892 in Maine in the United States of America. Most of her sonnets are about love, and many of the sonnets show how much Edna St. Vincent Millay admired Shakespeare. The sonnet has 14 lines and is one of the sonnets of the Portuguese.
The first five lines of the sonnet are about how she is telling the guys she loves that he should not pity her. Since life has its ups and downs, the guy should not pity her when Edna Millay is going through hard times. In the next few lines, Edna St.Vincent Millay mentions that she will continue loving this guy she is in love with. Then later, she says that her love to him is gone.
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
In the last four lines, Edna St.Vincent Millay uses very strong sentences, making them sound dramatic and understandable from her point of view. She says how much she loves him and then in the last two sentences she expresses her thoughts and feelings by addressing she doesn’t understand why men fall out of love so easily and quickly. She then, makes it sound that she wants people to pity her because of man falling out of love quickly. In the beginning of the sonnet she mentions that she does not want people to pity her in any way, showing her strength and capability of being strong but in the end she probably understood that she cannot be strong enough to say that she wants people to pity her because of that certain thing about men falling out of love and breaking her heart into millions of pieces. This is a very sad sonnet if people have experienced this before – they might know what Edna is talking about.
The sonnet was written in a Shakespearean Sonnet form. In this sonnet there were fourteen lines within ten syllables each. Edna St.Vincent Millay wrote this sonnet in a very rhyme-able way of Shakespeare. The diction of this poem is quite simple within each line there can be many different ways of understanding the text, but as we have read the sonnet we have understood that this sonnet is clearly about Love. Knowing Edna’s past we can determine what she might be referring to in her love experience by writing this sonnet.
There are some similarities about Sonnet 29 and Sonnet 43.The similarities are, that both these sonnets are about love, they are both written by females ,and they are also both about the love they don’t have any more, in other words, their love is lost.
This is a very interesting sonnet; I enjoyed reading it and getting to know it better. I find it truly sad how in Edna’s life men fall out of love quickly. Maybe she makes them make these moves, but she doesn’t notices this. Edna is expressing her feelings in this sonnet and I think that’s something everybody should be doing when they are in a situation like this. You cannot keep it in you. But at times she just overreacts by making people understand she doesn’t want people to pity her when really, deep inside, she does want us to pity her. It is not right to make a person believe in something that isn’t there. However, as I have mentioned before, I enjoyed this sonnet a lot and am willing to read more of these sorts of sonnets.
By Christina Lomakina
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ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeletePoetry Commentary
ReplyDeleteSonnet 29
Sonnet 29 was written by Edna St Vincent Millay. The poem was most likely written when she broke up with a lover and she is telling us not to pity her for various things and that we should only pity her because her heart is slow to learn.
The poem starts off by saying “Pity me not because” she is telling the reader not to pity her. The first two lines of the poem tell us not to pity her because the sun has gone down at the end of the day “Pity me not because the light of day…At close of day no longer walks the sky”. The next two lines are “Pity me not for beauties passed away…From field to thicket as the year goes by” She is telling us that we should not pity her because the field has become filled with brambles and weeds because no one is taking care of it.
The lines are:
“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.”
We are not supposed to pity her because the moon has grown smaller or because the tide has gone out or that a man has no more love.
Then the poem turns at the ninth line. Now she writes she has always known that love is the blossom that is destroyed by a strong wind. She also adds love is no more than a great tide that goes on shore and brings out the wreckage from the sea. The last two lines tell us that we should pity her because her heart is slow to learn when her mind has known since.
The poet implies that we should not pity her because of nature. Even though the sun goes down it will come up, even though the field has become over grown a farmer can cut it. The tide goes out but it comes back in, the moon wanes but it also waxes. A man falls out of love but he will love again. This is dispatching that love is a natural thing and no one can control it just like the sun going up and down, it is a routine of nature. The poet says she knows how love is and she gives us the image that a lovely blossomed tree is love but then it is destroyed by a strong wind this seems like an expression of sadness.
She then says love is the tide that treads the shore and it bring up wreckage. So love brings up all the forgotten sadness and memories of the past. Even though it is not directly said we can presume that the poet is talking about a man she broke up with because she writes “Nor that a man’s desire is hushed so soon” also it is a poem that you would write to a lover not a family member.
She gives the sense that he found someone else to love and left her and she does not blame the guy she blames nature and herself for feeling so down because she her mind knew the pattern of love but her heart did not. This can lead to the readers thinking she has no self control because if the mind is meant to control the heart and it knew about how the love would go why didn’t it stop her? The main theme of the poem is love. In the poem love is portrayed as a storm or a natural disaster.
A poem that can relate to this poem is sonnet 49 because both the poems talk about love but they both see love differently Sonnet 29 sees love as being uncontrollable and a natural disaster while sonnet 49 sees love as being a something that can be measured as a quantity. Both the poem are talking about a man that the poets loved\love.
I found this poem interesting because she found away to make it as though love is part of nature and you should not blame anyone for a bad love because even though you fall out of love you will fall into love again ( like a natural cycle).
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ReplyDeleteSonnet 29 was written by Edna st. Vincent Millay. She was from England. poem came out in 1923. Sonnet 29 is about love.
ReplyDeleteIn the sonnet she describes her feelings. In the first sentence she asking not to pity her for several things like "the light of day" "the beauties passed away" "waning of the moon" All those things she cant controle. In the next sentence she is writting more about her love "and you no longer look with love on me" this shows that she was writing this poem about her broken love. In the last sentence she pointing for what he needs to pity her "Pity me that the heart is slow to learn"
This poem she wrote about her love with someone which is over or comming to it. In the first sentence she was using negative cravneniya like "waning of the moon" "beauties passed away" she was saying that its not her falt that all that things are happening. She telling dont be sorry because i cant controle it."Nor that the mens desire is hushed so soon" this showes us that it wasnt her first men, that she already had this expirience. "this have i known always:love is no more" That shows that she knew that this relationship will eventually finish "pity me that the heart is slow to learn" however when it happened her heart is broken even though she knew this will happen.
This is 14 lined sonnet it have volta. This is shakespearian sonnet. ababcdcdefefgg. Most of the time she starts the line with "pity me..." First 6 lines she did in one sentence. she is making sound stronger at the end.
This sonnet make me think about Elizabeth Barrett Browning's "Sonnet 43". They have something in common. They both about love. However Elizabeth browning wrote sonnet about her own love and edna st. Vincent Millay wrote about her boyfriend's love to her.
I like this poem because it's beautiful work from the author. It's intresting to read because Edna st. Vincent Millay wrte it with great feelings and emotions.
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ReplyDeleteThis Sonnet was written by Edna St Vincent Millay. It was published in 1923. It is based around the early 20th century. It is a Shakespearian sonnet. It is based around love but also about feeling sorry for someone – being compassionate or sympathetic.
ReplyDeleteThe first eight lines of the Sonnet, Edna is talking to someone and telling them not to feel sorry for her and she gives reasons of things which are out of her control. An example is the first line when she says ‘Pity me not because the light of day.’ This is because she cannot control the day light. Then there is a volta (turn) in the poem in the 8th line where the persona begins to talk about disasters such as wreckages and shipwrecks. The tone changes from positive to negative. At the end of the Sonnet once she has stated why she shouldn’t be pitied she then gives the reason why she should be.
When Edna says ‘Nor that a man's desire is hushed so soon’ it suggests that a man only desires a woman for a brief time and then stops. Here the indication, is that the persona was in either a bad relationship or may be in numerous relationships that have ended. One indication is when she writes ‘Strewing fresh wreckage gathered in the gales’ as it sounds like she wants to emphasise the fact that after a break up wreckage is left behind (the wreckage being her in this case).
As this is a Shakespearean sonnet it has the ABAB CDCD EFEF GG structure. It also follows the iambic pentameter. The lines are easy to read in this poem because of the rhythm. In the first half, when Edna gives the reasons why she shouldn’t be pitied, the examples quoted are all natural causes and cannot be controlled like ‘the sun going down’ and ‘the tide going out’. The start seems a lot more positive than the end as she talks about love without mentioning heart-ache. In the second half, Edna talks a bit more seriously about love. But she still mentions natural things like ‘Than the wide blossom which the wind assails.’ This suggests that she believes that the mood of love can change like the direction of wind. But at the very end she tells this man why he should pity her. The reason she gives is ‘Pity me that the heart is slow to learn. When the swift mind beholds at every turn.’ I believe this may mean that she tells this man to pity her because it took her a long while to realise that he wasn’t very interested in her.
This sonnet is very different to Sonnet 43 by Elizabeth Barrett Browning. They are both Sonnets that feature love as the main theme. However, Sonnet 29 is a Shakespearean style whilst Sonnet 43 is a Petrarchan sonnet. The latter sonnet talks about a woman’s love for a man; Sonnet 29 is about love but more so about giving sympathy for someone who has been hurt because of love. Sonnet 29 also discusses other points such as how love can dramatically change. Sonnet 43 is more focused on portraying how much in love the poet is with her husband.
I believe that Sonnet 29 is well written and including the volta changes the messages that the poet is giving. At first she says don’t feel sorry for me but in truth she does want sympathy as she is hurt because there is love no more.
Sonnet 29
ReplyDeletePity 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.
Sonnet 29, written by Edna St. Vincent Millay in the early 20th century, in 1923, is a Shakespearean sonnet, and is about her love, and break up with her partner, and how her partner just fell out of love with her, and why she should and should not be pitied. Her partner is not revealed, but the word ‘You’ is used instead, making it more personal.
For the first 8 lines of the sonnet, Edna St. Vincent Millay uses a lot of comparison and why not to pity her, and she gives many reasons why (“Pity me not because the light of day at close of day no longer walks the sky…”). She also uses examples that are natural causes, and cannot be changed by a person (herself in this case), such as the Sun setting, or for the tide going out to sea etc. she then goes on to compare love to certain things, like the wide blossom that the wind assails, and the great tide that treads the shore. These are also destructive, comparing to destructing things. She then tells her to pity her for knowing that he was going to break up with her, but her heart is slow to learn, and it could not be helped in the end.
The poems meaning could be interpreted as being about Edna St. Vincent Millay’s sadness after she has broken up out of a relationship. She could also be implying that in the same way that love goes away, it returns, and this is mainly aimed at men, and the way that they love. She is also stating that men fall out of love, just as they fall in love with women.
The sonnet, being a sonnet, has 14 lines, of 10 syllables each. The rhyme scheme follows the pattern of ABABCDCDEFEFGG, and the Volta occurs at line 9, splitting the sonnet up into 8 lines, and 6 lines. The mood is pitiful, and a bit sad. She uses ‘Pity me not…’ for the beginning 8 lines of the poem, and uses comparisons for the rest of the sonnet, and a bit in the beginning of the sonnet. The poem is written sort of like a list, giving reasons why not to pity her, and the comparisons that she gives. She uses unavoidable events to explain why not to pity her, such as the Sun setting, and the Moon changing the tides. She also uses ‘Nor’, so that she doesn’t have to write pity me too many times. This song has the rhythm to be turned into a song, and be used as a song.
Sonnet 29 is similar to Sonnet 43, in the sense that they both talk about the love that they share for someone. However, sonnet 43 by Elizabeth Barrett Browning describes her infinite love, who is far away, yet she still loves him greatly, and sonnet 29 by Edna St. Vincent Millay is about her love for the man whom she has broken up with. Both of these sonnets use comparisons, and both describe the love that they have for someone.
The sonnet is well written in my mind, and Edna St. Vincent Millay planned the poem out very well. But, i do not like the way that she implies that only men fall out of love as easily as they fall in love. This makes her point seem biased, but that would probably be the case if she had just broken up. I am not a great fan of sonnets, but this one was well written and planned out.
Sonnet 29
ReplyDeleteEdna St Vincent Millay
Sonnet 29 is a 14 lined sonnet what was written by Edna St Vincent Millay. Sonnet 29 is one of the Sonnets from ‘Sonnets of the Portuguese’ edition of her many sonnets. She was born in 1892 and died in 1950. Sonnet 29 is basically about how the person she loves doesn’t love her anymore and how she should not and should be pitied.
The first 6 lines are about how she is telling the man she loves that he should not pity her for those reasons but, as referenced to the last 2 lines it says that she should be pitied because her heart doesn’t learn that men fall in and out of love like her brain dose, and the fact that she falls in love with men and then gets un-loved by that man soon later. In the 7th and 8th line it says about how he doesn’t look at her and act like he used to and it slightly depresses her.
There are 14 lines each with 10 syllables per line in this poem, this is the standard form of a sonnet. She also wrote her sonnets in a rhyme scheme that a normal Shakespearean sonnet would be written in. This poem is very simple but each line can be read in many different ways and depends on the listeners thoughts. It is clear from the beginning that it is about love but once you read what’s implied from each individual line then you realise what is happening. Knowing Edna’s past and life helps as it makes it easier to understand this poem as we learnt from the video we watched in class.
This poem is similar to Sonnet 43 written by Elizabeth Barret Browning. They are both about love to man. Both of these poems are written by a female author. Both of these poems are saying how much they love these men and how they don’t seem to feel the love they want back from them, they both seem to be more of a complaint than anything else.
This poem was a very repetitive poem and was rather annoying as she kept complaining that she didn’t get what she was aiming for (love from the man she loves) I think it’s like the poet wants us to pity her because she doesn’t get her love and we should feel sorry for her. The thing I do like about the poem is the way there are lots of hidden meanings behind the obvious text and she made this very effective upon the poem.
Pity me not because the light of day
ReplyDeleteAt 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.
Sonnet 29 by Edna St VIncent Millay. Sonnet 29 belongs to a collection of sonnets call "Sonnets of the Portuguese. Edna St Vincent Millay 1892-1950.I believe Sonnet 29 is written about a lost love that Edna has linked to the movement of nature to create a lonely image that describes her feelings and her self pity about what has happened and that it was going to happen no matter what.
The first line of the poem is the woman saying do not pity me because the light of day
"Pity me not because the light of day" Edna continuous this for the next eight lines with “Pity me not….” and “Nor that….” Then the poem reaches a volta and turns to a almost to self pity with the line “This have I known always: Love is no more” This line changes from the peaceful descriptions of nature to a more sad and almost depresent tone with the “Love is no more” after this point she goes on to describe the destructive powers of nature “Than the great tide that treads the shifting shore.
Strewing fresh wreckage gathered in the gales:”
I think she is also describing love as a power of nature and it is also destructive. The poem ends with “Pity me that the heart is slow to learn
When the swift mind beholds at every turn.” This links back with the beginning but instead of “pity me not” Edna says “Pity me that the..."
Sonnet 29 is constructed of 14 line 10 syllables per line. The poem follows the Shakespearean rhyme scheme. The poem has a lot of deeper meaning below the first glance for example “From field to thicket as the year goes by;” this is implying that the fields are becoming over grown and covered in brambles as time goes by these descriptions involve movement and passing of time “walks the sky”, ”year goes by;” these descriptions prompt the reader to picture the landscape in their imagination. By using this technique Edna has not only created a poem that cam be read but can be visualized. It is easy to see that the poem is based on love but i think that Edna is not only talking about love but about a personal experienced even if not her own then one she has witnessed.
Sonnet 29 shares similarities to Sonnet 43 written by Elizabeth Barret Browning. Both sonnets are about love, but the large difference is that Sonnet 29 is talking about the absence a love once there but Sonnet 43 is talking about what it feels to be in love and how much she loves that person.
This poem is a great read and holds strong to the Shakespearean rhyme scheme and is pleasant to listen to. The poem is a good read that allows you to read deeper and make interesting images come to mind when you concentrate on the words.
Nathan Back
Sonnet 29 was written by Edna St. Vincent Millay in the early 1920’s . Edna St Vincent Millay was born in Rockland, Maine in 1892. The poem is about her telling someone not to pity her because of things that happen such as the sun setting. The key themes of the poem are love , heartbreak and disappointment, hope and self sympathy.
ReplyDeleteThe poem starts, “pity me not because the light of day at close of day no longer walks the sky” . Here the poet is basically saying not to pity her because there is no sunlight after the sun goes down. “Pity me not for beauties past away from field to thicket as year goes by” Here Edna is saying, don’t pity me because as the seasons change the flowers and crops pass away. “Pity me not the waning of the moon nor that the ebbing tide goes out to sea” Here Edna says don’t pity me because the moon goes away as it wanes or that the tide goes out . “ Nor that a mans desire is hushed so soon and you no longer look with love on me.” Here Edna describes how she shouldn’t be pitied because men fall out of love so easily and her lover at the time (maybe) doesn’t look at her with love anymore. “This have I known always, love is no more then the wide blossom that the wind assails" She's saying here that love is nothing more then flowers blowing in the wind. "Then the great tide that treads the shifting shore, strewing fresh wreckage gathered in the gales." Here she describes a more destructive natural force such as crashing waves on the shore leaving fresh wreckage that have been picked up in the wind and waves. " Pity me that the heart is slow to learn , while the swift mind beholds at every turn." Here she is being self pitying by saying, feel sorry for me because my heart doesn't know what my mind already discovered or realized.
The poet describes at first things like , Pity me not for things i can't control such as the sun setting or the moon waning.All of these things however come back after a period of time. She then goes on to talk about how all men are the same saying things like, "Nor that a man's desire is hushed so soon and you no longer look with love on me" Meaning that the man in question no longer is in love with her and she is asking him not to feel bad because it is another thing she can't help. At the beginning she describes things that are negative but not really that bad such as the setting sun or the tide going out. After the volta of the poem however the imagery she creates is more destructive such as " strewing fresh wreckage gathered in the gales". But maybe she is just implying that the world is full of things you can't control and that you should get used to it and learn from it but she says she cant , " Pity me that the heart is slow to learn while the swift mind beholds at every turn." Maybe she is implying she also can not control how her heart feels and hopes each new guy will be different then the last, only to be disappointed again and again.
The mood of the poem is sort of sad, and empathetic. Edna St Vincent Millay is saying, Pity me not because i can't control these things ..
The sonnet is written in a Shakespearean Sonnet theme. The rhyme scheme therefore is A,B,A,B,C,D,C,D,E,F,E,F,G,G. The rhyme scheme fits the poem as it helps her set up her argument more. She uses a lot of imagery in this poem such as the setting sun or the waning moon . Then there is the destructive imagery after the 'volta'. The tone is quite empathetic as well as the poem seems to be about a break up, which sets up a saddened atmosphere.
This poem doesn't really remind me of any other piece of literature. I shall instead compare it with the other poem we have been studying , Sonnet 49 By Elizabeth Barrett Browning. Both poems are about love except one is about how much she loves her lover and the second poem is about how sad it is that men fall out of love so easily . They have some similarities and some differences. They are quite opposite though .
ReplyDeleteI really liked this poem . I liked the rhyme scheme and the imagery created. This poem reminds me of past experiences of friends and of family that has occured and it is a nice poem ^^ .
By Elizabeth Barrett Browning
ReplyDeleteHow do I love thee? Let me count the ways.
I love thee to the depth and breadth and height
My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight
For the ends of Being and ideal Grace.
I love thee to the level of everyday's
Most quiet need, by sun and candle-light.
I love thee freely, as men strive for Right;
I love thee purely, as they turn from Praise.
I love thee with the passion put to use
In my old grief’s, and with my childhood's faith.
I love thee with a love I seemed to lose
With my lost saints!---I love thee with the breath,
Smiles, tears, of all my life!---and, if God choose,
I shall but love thee better after death.
Sonnet 43
Elizabeth Barret Browning.
Sonnet 43 by Elizabeth Barret Browning and was written in 1850. The poem is about love, and how she is in love with him but he isn’t in love with her. The poem is belived to about Elizabeth Barret Browning and her love Robert Browning.
The poem starts off with "How do I love thee? Let me count the ways." She then goes on about how many ways she loves “Robert” sort of like a list. It gives the reader a picture in our mind that she loves him in many ways and a lot. The Sonnet ends with the line "I shall but love thee better after death." Saying that she will even love him still when she has died meaning she will love him for eternity.
Sonnet 43 has 14 lines each line with 10 syllables but it doesn’t follow the Shakespearean sonnet form but the Pertracan Rhyme.(ABBACDDCEFEFEF). “I Love Thee” is repeated often throughout the poem, showing that she really loves him lots. The poem is very emotional and very to the point about how she loves him and only that! .
Sonnet 43 is somewhat similar to Sonnet 29. In both of the sonnets the main theme is love but in Sonnet 43 she loves him but he doesn’t love her back and in Sonnet 29 it is about their love they both love each other. Both have similar beats and rhythm.
I didn’t mind reading these poems at all its just they were a bit boring in the sense that there was no action just a poem about love. Still it is interesting how they are written and how that there love is strong that it can lead to them writing an intimate poem about their love toward someone.
Sonnet 29
ReplyDeleteSonnet 29 was written by Edna St. Vincent Millay in the early 20th century and is aSonnet that talks about love, or rather how it never seems to turn out well forher. The sonnet is about how her partner fell out of love with her and why sheshould / should not be pitied.
The first eight lines (octet) list the ways in which she shouldn’tbe pitied, “Pity me not the waning of the moon”. The reasons she gives are all naturally occurring events that have a ‘come and go’ pattern i.e. the waxing andthe waning of the moon. She makes these references to link them to how a man loves her, at firsthis love increases and then it shrinks (ebbing and flowing of the tide “northat the ebbing tide goes out to sea.’ At the end of the octet she says that “a man’s desire is hushed so soon.”“Man’s” implies that she is talking about man as a whole, not just individualmen that she has met over the years.
She talks in the last 6 lines about how love attacks herheart, and often leaves it behind, weakened. Then in the last two lines give the reason why we should pity her, “Pity me that the heart is slow tolearn, when the swift mind beholds at every turn”. She is essentially sayingthat even though she knows in her mind that love will end up hearting her, timeand time again her heart falls for it.
This poem implies that Edna St. Vincent Millay has sufferedgreatly from heartbreak and sadness. It also could mean that she believes loveis not a permanent thing, but a temporary occurrence that comes and goes, butonly men control when it comes and goes, the women are left behind to gather upthe pieces. From this we can gather that she is starting to find men annoying,and often hate them for what they do to her. She doesn’t however talk aboutother women being affected the same way; she only seems to mention herself inthis rather (understandably) selfish poem.
The Sonnet is laid out in a typical Shakespearean sonnet form. The rhyme scheme is clear at the end of each line; ABABCDCDEFEF for the first 12 lines and then the last two lines (learn, and turn) rhyme completing the scheme with a GG. Edna St. Vincent Millay uses the first 8 lines to list and build up the reasons why one (and the partner the poem was intended for) should not pity her. Then after the eight lines, she puts the way she feels before after and during love into a metaphor. Showing how she is left behind when the man stops loving her “Strewing fresh wreckage gathered in the gales”. Then the last two rhyming lines deliver the reason why you should pity her.
I think that Millay managed to set out, compare and put into perspective how she feels about love and the way love (and man) treats her. There is an effective build up and use comparison at the beginning and then she gives a description of her feelings at situation after a man has stopped loving her, she then delivers an excellent and understandable reason for which you should pity her, right at the end leaving the reader with something to think about.