what lips my lips have kissed (1923)

8/13/2019 What Lips My Lips Have Kissed (1923)

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What Lips My Lips HaveKissed (1923)

By: Edna St. Vincent Millay


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Biography

Edna St. Vincent Millay was brought up in a small townin Maine in the USA.

Her mother encouraged her to read, develop her musicaltalents, and follow her ambitions

Millay completed university and then moved to NewYork City and lived among fast-thinking people with newideas

She wrote plays and acted

She was lively, sexually liberated, and independent

Her poetry was praised for its for its freshness andvitality

She is famous for her great ability at writing sonnetslike the poem that follows.


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Summary

In What lips my lips have kissed, Millay laments [criesfor] her lost lovers.

I cannot say what loves have come and gone. Overall,Millay reveals that she enjoyed rather than loved theyoung men who were her lovers. She lost them allbecause she continually changed from lover to lover.

She looks back on her youth and feels an intense senseof loss.


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What lips my lips have kissed, and where, and why, Ihave forgotten is the first line and a half of the poem.

This quote clearly summarises the subject matter of thepoem. Millay fondly remembers the delight of kissingmany lovers. She loved the physical contact.

She desired many young men and passed from one tothe other forgetfully. The faces and personalities of the

many lovers are forgotten. Millay does not rememberthem individually. She gives us a general image of aseries of lovers. Does she mean she wasted herchances?

She admits she has forgotten the various locations andthe reasons for the many trysts.

[Tryst is a word for a date that involves a physicalencounter with a lover].


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In the second and third lines, Millay pictures youngmens arms that have embraced her all night:

what arms have lain under my head till morning.

She mentions arms. This further shows that she cannotremember the people involved.

Millay may be admitting that she was careless andreplaced her lovers too easily.

The words till morning suggest these were one-nightstands.

She does not give the impression that she developed

relationships.


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In the fourth and fifth lines Millay imagines that thenoise made by the raindrops on her window are theattempts of young lovers to contact her again.

She compares the forgotten lovers to ghosts.

The word ghosts means memories. It is a dramatic

way of remembering. She reveals guilt for the pain she caused these ex-

lovers.

This part of the poem shows that Millay broke hearts.Perhaps she squandered [wasted] her opportunities for

love.


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In the sixth, seventh and eighth lines Millay shows herlonely emotion for all the lovers of her past who shewont see again.

She remembers them with painful longing.

The memory stirs a quiet pain. Millay recalls deep

moments of intimacy: turn to me at midnight with acry.

Perhaps she was a femme fatale type and now faces inherself the pain and emptiness she caused to her loversin the past.

A femme fatale is a beautiful woman who wins thehearts of men and immediately cuts them off as sheseeks new conquests.


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In the sestet, the last six lines, Millay feels she hasgrown too old.

She can no longer experience the passionate love of heryouth.

Perhaps she cant attract young male lovers any more.

They have come and gone.


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In lines nine, ten and eleven Millay compares herself toa lonely tree that misses the songbirds of summer.

The songbirds represent her lovers. The reader must think that unlike the tree, Millay could

have prevented her loneliness.


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In line twelve she repeats that she cannot remember herlovers individually:

I cannot say what loves have come and gone.

In line thirteen and fourteen, she compares her joyfulyouth to a brief summer time, full of songs.

In the fourteenth line, Millay states that the joy of heryears of loving has gone.


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Themes

Emotions last even though memories vanish:

in my heart there stirs a quiet pain for unrememberedlads.

Millay recalls the joys of happy love affairs in her youth: What lips my lips have kissed and summer sang in me a

little while.

Millay broke hearts and squandered [wasted] herchances for happiness:

ghosts to-night, that tap and sigh upon the glass and listenfor reply.


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Millay laments the way the joys of young love and

summer are brief: I only know that summer sang in me a little while that in

me sings no more.

Millay regrets how she wasted love:

I have forgotten and And in my heart there stirs a quiet

pain for unremembered lads.

Millay vividly recalls happy times of intimate love affairs:

lips my lips have kissed.

Millay feels despair at the way her life has changed likethe seasons:

I only know that summer sang in me a little while that inme sings no more.


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Tones In the octave the tone is wistful [full of sad longing]:

the rain is full of ghosts to-night, that tap and sigh.

Sometimes the tone is passionate:

What lips my lips have kissed.

Sometimes the tone is guilty:

in my heart there stirs a quiet pain.

Sometimes there is a tone of intense sorrow:

in my heart there stirs a quiet pain.

In line nine the tone is very lonely:

Thus in the winter stands the lonely tree.

In the sestet the tone becomes extremely sad andregretful:

summer sang in me a little while, that in me sings nomore.


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ImageryMillay uses two main

comparisons.

In the octave she uses raindrops hitting a windowpaneto stand for the sighs of lost lovers.

She also compares the raindrops to ghosts.

This word is a metaphor.

These raindrops and ghosts stand for memories.

The memories are of lost lovers.

In this comparison, the poet uses the windowpane toshow the separation between the present and past.


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In the sestet Millay compares herself to a lonely tree. [If you wish to, you can refer to this comparison as an

analogy. An analogy is a parallel image. The tree is ananalogy for the poet herself. Without this analogy orcomparison, we would know a lot less about Millaysfeelings. The comparison or analogy is an image for thepoets sense of loss.]

The vanished birds stand for her vanished lovers. Thelack of leaves and singing birds stands for the lack oflovers. Nobody young desires the poet, now that she hasgot older. She has lost those who would love her.


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The poem contains images of nature The poem containsimages of pleasure and intimate love:

What lips my lips have kissed

arms have lain under my head till morning

lads that turn to me at midnight with a cry

These are dramatic images of deep passion.: winter

lonely tree

birds

boughs

summer


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Sound effects

Alliteration [the repetition of first letters]

Note the 3 ws and 2 ls in the following line:

What lips my lips have kissed, and where, and why

Assonance [repetition of vowels]

Note the 6 a sound repeated in the following line:

I have forgotten, and what arms have lain

Note the o sound in the two final lines:

I only know that summer sang in me A little while, that in me sings no more.


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Rhyming

There is a definite rhyming pattern: abbaabba cdedce

Cross Rhyme [a word or sound rhyming across two ormore lines]:

Note the way know is repeated three times in the sestet.

Rhythm

Sometimes the rhythm has a natural feeling with the run onlines and simple conversational words.

what lips my lips have kissed (1923)

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