`What Lips My Lips Have Kissed-Poem-by Edna St. Vincent Millay

A Critique on What Lips My Lips Have Kissed

Edna St . Vincent Millay 's What Lips My Lips Have Kissed , is an imagistic regression into the mind of a desensitized woman . It grazes the mystic ideals held within intimacy and sexual intercourse , while also maintaining an underlying awareness of the author 's bisexuality Though , the relationship stigmas she touches on still apply to human love affairs today , this poem can only be seen as revolutionary for its time period and the feminist movement . In this essay I intend to show how this

poem , among many of Millay 's other works , have attained cult status , due to their close correlation with her life

When Millay states What lips my lips have kissed , and where , and why , I have forgotten , she is obviously referring to her past lovers (MIllay The ideal that gives more value to this statement is knowing that these lovers include men , women and highly acclaimed laureates . She goes on to use very symbolic imagery to signify the presence of these lost lovers . Terms like , ghosts , birds , and of course lips , are used to identify their presence throughout the poem . Millay likens herself to a tree , whose birds have vanished one by one (Millay . This human connection to nature adds to the poems intrigue and its mysticism . The entire purpose of her sullen regression is summed up at the end of the poem when she says

I cannot say what loves have come and gone

I only know that summer sang in me

A little while , that in me sings no more (Millay

These last three stanzas sum up the main premise of the poem and also resemble the feelings of a woman who has been desensitized to intimacy This is a very revolutionary position for a woman to be in during the 1930 's to 50 's considering that the cultural expectations of the American women were very strict . Men feared that women would become unruly and sex crazed if they experienced sexual intercourse with more than one partner . Millay 's promiscuous nature and her edgy perspective definitely go against the grain of what society expected . This rebellious nature in the poem can be directly correlated to experiences in Millay 's real life as a bisexual Millay 's tendency towards bisexuality developed while she attended Vassar college . AT the time Vassar was an all girl University . She moved to Paris in 1921 , where she met Thelma Wood and began a romantic relationship . After she turned down a proposal by Edmund Wilson in 1920 , she eventually weds Eugene Jan Boissevain in 1923 . This is an open relationship in which both parties take on numerous sexual partners . She also had a considerably significant relationship with George Dillon , who won the Pulitzer Prize in Poetry in 1932 . At the time of their relationship , Dillon was 14 years younger than her

In sum , Edna St . Vincent Millay is one of the legendary poets of American History . She represents a major part of the feminist movement Her works are historically valuable because they encompass her own life on which her personal relationships have been highly influential . Her personal reflections represent that of a rational and objective woman with complete control over her emotions , and this is what gives credit to her position in the feminist movement . She lived her work and her work resembled her life . She undoubtedly has earned her position as one of the most significant American laureates

Work Cited

"Edna St . Vincent Millay " Wikipedia , The Free Encyclopedia . 12 Feb 2007 , 04 :16 UTC . Wikimedia Foundation , Inc . 18 Feb 2007

Epstein , Daniel Mark (2001 . What Lips my Lips Have Kissed : The Loves and Love Poems of Edna St . Vincent Millay . New York : Henry Holt ...