Earlier in the semester of my English 215 class when we first started learning about Edna St. Vincent Millay, I didn't really understand nor have an appreciation for her work.
However, after completing a recent project in which I decided to discuss Edna St. Vincent Millay's poetry, I grew an interest in her work and learned to appreciate it. Her poems deal with lost love, new found love, lust, the best and worst parts about growing older, and life. Personally, I feel like I can relate to her poems. Matter of fact, anyone that has ever loved, or has ever had heartbreak can relate to her work, and lets be real, 99.9% of us have already or eventually will deal with this in his or her lifetime.
Edna St. Vincent Millay writes about what people are thinking and what others want to say but don't ever say it. She's honest, sometimes brutaly honest, and she doesn't try to sugarcoat her words or emotions. I admire her for this.
In order for you to understand and hopefully gain an appreciation for Edna St. Vincent Millay I have compiled a few of my favorite lines from some of her works. Hopefully reading these will help you establish some sort of connection and respect.
1."My heart is what it was before,
A house where people come and go;"
2."Pity me that the heart is slow to learn
What the swift mind beholds at every turn."
3."Beauty is whatever gives joy."
4."Life is a quest and love a quarrel—"
5. "It's not true that life is one damn thing after another;
it's one damn thing over and over. "
6. "Where you used to be,
there is a hole in the world,
which I find myself constantly walking around in the daytime,
and falling in at night. I miss you like hell."
7. "Parrots, tortoises and redwoods live a longer life than men do;
Men a longer life than dogs do;
Dogs a longer life than love does."
8. "Not truth, but faith, it is that keeps the world alive."
9. "Childhood is the kingdom where nobody dies.
Nobody that matters, that is."
10. "Time does not bring relief;
you all have lied
Who told me time would ease me of my pain!
I miss him in the weeping of the rain;"