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Make Bright the Arrows
Poetry.
- GenresPoetry
65 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1940
26 people want to read
About the author
Edna St. Vincent Millay
446 books1,096 followersEdna St. Vincent Millay was an American lyrical poet and playwright. She received the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 1923, the third woman to win the award for poetry, and was also known for her feminist activism and her many love affairs. She used the pseudonym Nancy Boyd for her prose work.
This famous portrait of Vincent (as she was called by friends) was taken by Carl Van Vechten in 1933.
This famous portrait of Vincent (as she was called by friends) was taken by Carl Van Vechten in 1933.
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
February 9, 2021
What strikes me is that this collection of Millay's reflections on WWII is still so relevant - unflinchingly and sadly relevant.
There is this:
No man, no nation, is made free
By stating it intends to be.
Jostled and elbowed is the clown
Who thinks to walk alone in town.
and this:
But now...what power to bargain have the poor?
And, in those iron values which alone
Pass in our time for legal currency,
Minted by savage chieftans to insure
Shut mouth, shut mind, hushed sobbing, swallowed groan
And punished laughter-who so poor as we?
As someone who spends most of my workday mucking through the aftermath of war, this collection spoke to me - not all of it (I struggled with "The Crooked Cross") but most. I really appreciated the way Millay illustrated the scars on land left behind from conflict and the way she portrayed naked power or powers sake - all too true.
There is this:
No man, no nation, is made free
By stating it intends to be.
Jostled and elbowed is the clown
Who thinks to walk alone in town.
and this:
But now...what power to bargain have the poor?
And, in those iron values which alone
Pass in our time for legal currency,
Minted by savage chieftans to insure
Shut mouth, shut mind, hushed sobbing, swallowed groan
And punished laughter-who so poor as we?
As someone who spends most of my workday mucking through the aftermath of war, this collection spoke to me - not all of it (I struggled with "The Crooked Cross") but most. I really appreciated the way Millay illustrated the scars on land left behind from conflict and the way she portrayed naked power or powers sake - all too true.
April 11, 2017
Nowadays, America proudly proclaims that it 'beat the Nazis'. But in 1940, most Americans wanted to avoid the confrontation with fascism. Edna St. Vincent Millay was intensely frustrated with their complacency and wrote Make Bright the Arrows to convince them otherwise.
Most reviews of the album are absolutely crushing, mostly because it's considered 'propaganda'. The reviewer in Time magazine, for example, wrote that Millay "lashes out at the warring world like a lady octopus caught in a whirlpool." Even Millay herself feared that she had produced 'posters instead of poems'. Apparently, propagandistic literature can't be real literature - or at least, it can't be good literature.
I have to admit that many of the poems in this album are strident and one-sided. But if poetry written against the rise of fascism is a little strident, so be it. Millay took a stand in a world that was falling into chaos, and she was clear-sighted enough to see that isolationism was an inadequate response to that world. I look up to anyone who has such moral courage and who expresses it with such powerful poetry.
I think the best poems of the album are 'Memory of England', 'Underground System', 'Noël! Noël!' and the nine sonnets.
'Memory of England' paints a pastoral image of England and includes these magical lines:
"Chestnut, with its sweet mealy food
On the leaves thick about us in the autumn air
Plentiful, gleaming from its rough burrs everywhere -
All this was good,
And all had speech, and spoke"
'Noël! Noël!' is a somewhat cynical rumination on the place of christian ideals in American society. I think it shows that Millay had a fine religious sensibility, even though she was agnostic.
Sonnet VI is a call for strength, both personal and national, and it is intense! "I must not die of pity; I must live; / Grow strong, not sicken; eat, digest my food, / That it may build me."
The last lines are particularly powerful:
"If I would help the weak, I must be fed
In wit and purpose, pour away despair
And rinse the cup, eat happiness like bread."
Sometimes, appeals for charity and compassion can seem sickly and whiny. I'm talking about an overly 'christian' kind of altruism that is exemplified by Mother Theresa, who reveled in self-effacement and cared more about her patients dying well than living well. Millay will have none of it. She paints charity and compassion as Herculean feats!
And that phrase... Eat happiness like bread... To me, those words are nourishment in themselves.
Most reviews of the album are absolutely crushing, mostly because it's considered 'propaganda'. The reviewer in Time magazine, for example, wrote that Millay "lashes out at the warring world like a lady octopus caught in a whirlpool." Even Millay herself feared that she had produced 'posters instead of poems'. Apparently, propagandistic literature can't be real literature - or at least, it can't be good literature.
I have to admit that many of the poems in this album are strident and one-sided. But if poetry written against the rise of fascism is a little strident, so be it. Millay took a stand in a world that was falling into chaos, and she was clear-sighted enough to see that isolationism was an inadequate response to that world. I look up to anyone who has such moral courage and who expresses it with such powerful poetry.
I think the best poems of the album are 'Memory of England', 'Underground System', 'Noël! Noël!' and the nine sonnets.
'Memory of England' paints a pastoral image of England and includes these magical lines:
"Chestnut, with its sweet mealy food
On the leaves thick about us in the autumn air
Plentiful, gleaming from its rough burrs everywhere -
All this was good,
And all had speech, and spoke"
'Noël! Noël!' is a somewhat cynical rumination on the place of christian ideals in American society. I think it shows that Millay had a fine religious sensibility, even though she was agnostic.
Sonnet VI is a call for strength, both personal and national, and it is intense! "I must not die of pity; I must live; / Grow strong, not sicken; eat, digest my food, / That it may build me."
The last lines are particularly powerful:
"If I would help the weak, I must be fed
In wit and purpose, pour away despair
And rinse the cup, eat happiness like bread."
Sometimes, appeals for charity and compassion can seem sickly and whiny. I'm talking about an overly 'christian' kind of altruism that is exemplified by Mother Theresa, who reveled in self-effacement and cared more about her patients dying well than living well. Millay will have none of it. She paints charity and compassion as Herculean feats!
And that phrase... Eat happiness like bread... To me, those words are nourishment in themselves.
November 9, 2013
The poem about Joan d'Arc just broke my heart. Sniff.
May 6, 2019
Listen. Some of this is too gd relevant to the year of our lord two thousand and nineteen. Anyway I love her bye
July 1, 2020
I read 8 books in June 2020 and imagined each one as a character in a Living Book Review. Sign up here to receive the Living Books Reviews newsletter in your inbox each month! https://mailchi.mp/53d716a27eaf/livin....
Still staying at home and working online. Does it count as working if I don’t have to put on makeup? Who am I if no one sees me all day? Except for Jane Austen, who has promoted herself to my supervisor and gives me passive-aggressive performance reviews. When I see my friends smiling faces, it’s through Zoom under a warning that our connection is unstable. The books clamor in too - they want their faces in little boxes.
Make Bright the Arrows by Edna St. Vincent Millay isn’t sure how to use Zoom. Her screen is gray. It says “Reloading.” When she does pop up, it’s to talk about Hitler. Remember Hitler? Her words are beautiful, but they make everyone uncomfortable. Change them a bit and they’re a little too close to where we live. You better fight, Edna says, just before her connection cuts out.
Still staying at home and working online. Does it count as working if I don’t have to put on makeup? Who am I if no one sees me all day? Except for Jane Austen, who has promoted herself to my supervisor and gives me passive-aggressive performance reviews. When I see my friends smiling faces, it’s through Zoom under a warning that our connection is unstable. The books clamor in too - they want their faces in little boxes.
Make Bright the Arrows by Edna St. Vincent Millay isn’t sure how to use Zoom. Her screen is gray. It says “Reloading.” When she does pop up, it’s to talk about Hitler. Remember Hitler? Her words are beautiful, but they make everyone uncomfortable. Change them a bit and they’re a little too close to where we live. You better fight, Edna says, just before her connection cuts out.
September 20, 2023
Wartime poetry, and some poems ended so beautifully
“Oh, you were shiny!—and for some strange reason, fond of me.” (pg.41)
“Oh, you were shiny!—and for some strange reason, fond of me.” (pg.41)
November 12, 2014
Fascinating to read Vincent's reflections on WWII. Two poems, one about Joan of Arc and another addressed to Jesus, especially stand out.
April 11, 2017
I took a break from ESVM for a while but I'm glad I returned to her. I didn't feel the power of her earlier work in this collection, but it's still beautiful stuff.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews