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Early Works of Edna St. Vincent Millay
Book by Edna St. Vincent Millay
- GenresPoetry
224 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2006
3 people are currently reading
48 people want to read
About the author
Edna St. Vincent Millay
445 books1,095 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 - 2 of 2 reviews
January 11, 2017
So I've carried this little Dover Thrift book around with me just about everywhere I've gone for years, and I figured it was time to write a review and maybe pull my thoughts together as to what exactly I love about this collection.
Edna St. Vincent Millay is basically what would happen if Fitzgerald and Emily Dickenson had a baby. She's a fantastic poet with a command of many traditional forms as well as some more modernist styles, and her subject matter ranges from the romantic, to awe-inspiring odes to the natural world, and very personal glimpses into her wild 20's spirit in the midst of the jazz age.
My favorite poems are almost exclusively her shorter, more lyrical works, and for that reason A Few Figs From Thistles is my favorite of the three chapbooks included (The Philosopher, First Fig, Second Fig, and Recuerdo are must-read poems in it.) Second April doesn't grab me quite so much, full of longer poems that are considerably sadder, elegies, and sonnets that lack the bounce of some of her other work. Still Spring and Travel are works of genius, and I thoroughly enjoyed the biblical imagery of The Blue Flag in the Bog.
In college, I did my final paper in my Naturalist Literature class on Renascence, so you can well imagine how fond I am of the Renascence and Other Poems chapbook. One of her longest, best, and first published, Renascence is a beautiful and passionate portrait of how overwhelming joy can be; something that I deeply feel but rarely see discussed. How many authors stop to capture the feeling that happiness might kill you? The Suicide, like her later The Blue Flag in the Bog, is an ode to the natural world and human life merely through the lens of religion, and I loved the final twist its strong narrative took. The lyrical poems and sonnets are sharp and full of spunk even when they cover melancholy subjects.
I highly recommend everyone page through or at least google Edna St. Vincent Millay... she is a profoundly under-rated American poet.
Edna St. Vincent Millay is basically what would happen if Fitzgerald and Emily Dickenson had a baby. She's a fantastic poet with a command of many traditional forms as well as some more modernist styles, and her subject matter ranges from the romantic, to awe-inspiring odes to the natural world, and very personal glimpses into her wild 20's spirit in the midst of the jazz age.
My favorite poems are almost exclusively her shorter, more lyrical works, and for that reason A Few Figs From Thistles is my favorite of the three chapbooks included (The Philosopher, First Fig, Second Fig, and Recuerdo are must-read poems in it.) Second April doesn't grab me quite so much, full of longer poems that are considerably sadder, elegies, and sonnets that lack the bounce of some of her other work. Still Spring and Travel are works of genius, and I thoroughly enjoyed the biblical imagery of The Blue Flag in the Bog.
In college, I did my final paper in my Naturalist Literature class on Renascence, so you can well imagine how fond I am of the Renascence and Other Poems chapbook. One of her longest, best, and first published, Renascence is a beautiful and passionate portrait of how overwhelming joy can be; something that I deeply feel but rarely see discussed. How many authors stop to capture the feeling that happiness might kill you? The Suicide, like her later The Blue Flag in the Bog, is an ode to the natural world and human life merely through the lens of religion, and I loved the final twist its strong narrative took. The lyrical poems and sonnets are sharp and full of spunk even when they cover melancholy subjects.
I highly recommend everyone page through or at least google Edna St. Vincent Millay... she is a profoundly under-rated American poet.
July 31, 2016
I usually have a book of poetry out that I'm working my way through, reading and rereading. I love Millay. Beautiful use of language, and a lush sense of place. A modern woman with new twists on the natural world.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews