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Relevant Background
Edna St. Vincent Millay was brought up in a small town in Maine in the USA
Her mother encouraged her to read, develop her musical talents, and follow her
ambitions
Millay completed university and then moved to New York City and lived among fast-
thinking people with new ideas
Her poetry was praised for its for its freshness and vitality
She is famous for her great ability at writing sonnets like the poem that follows.
Summary
In ‘What lips my lips have kissed’, Millay laments [cries for] her lost lovers.
‘I cannot say what loves have come and gone’. Overall, Millay reveals that she enjoyed rather
than loved the young men who were her lovers. She lost them all because she continually
changed from lover to lover.
She looks back on her youth and feels an intense sense of loss.
The main difference between the octave and sestet is that the poet compares her lost lovers to
ghosts in the octave, and to summer birds in the sestet. In the sestet Millay also emphasises the
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passing of time. In both parts of the poem she admits she had many lovers and never held on to
any of them.
It is possible that Millay made up a character to speak the lines of this sonnet. In these notes,
we imagine that character is herself. You can imagine that the voice of Millay, the poet, speaks
directly to us from her own experience.
‘What lips my lips have kissed, and where, and why, I have forgotten’ is the first line and a half of
the poem.
This quote clearly summarises the subject matter of the poem. Millay fondly remembers the
delight of kissing many lovers. She loved the physical contact.
She desired many young men and passed from one to the other forgetfully. The faces and
personalities of the many lovers are forgotten. Millay does not remember them individually. She
gives us a general image of a series of lovers. Does she mean she wasted her chances?
She admits she has forgotten the various locations and the reasons for the many trysts.
[Tryst is a word for a date that involves a physical encounter with a lover].
In the second and third lines, Millay pictures young men’s arms that have embraced her all
night:
‘what arms have lain under my head till morning’.
She mentions arms. This further shows that she cannot remember the people involved. Millay
may be admitting that she was careless and replaced her lovers too easily. The words ‘till
morning’ suggest these were one-night stands. She does not give the impression that she
developed relationships.
In the fourth and fifth lines Millay imagines that the noise made by the raindrops on her
window are the attempts 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.
In the sixth, seventh and eighth lines Millay shows her lonely emotion for all the lovers of her
past who she won’t 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 a cry’.
Perhaps she was a femme fatale type and now faces in herself the pain and emptiness she
caused to her lovers in the past. A femme fatale is a beautiful woman who wins the hearts of
men and immediately cuts them off as she seeks new conquests.
In the sestet, the last six lines, Millay feels she has grown too old. She can no longer experience
the passionate love of her youth. Perhaps she can’t attract young male lovers any more. They
have ‘come and gone’.
In lines nine, ten and eleven Millay compares herself to a 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.
In line twelve she repeats that she cannot remember her lovers individually:
‘I cannot say what loves have come and gone’.
In line thirteen and fourteen, she compares her joyful youth to a brief summer time, full of
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songs.
In the fourteenth line, Millay states that the joy of her years of loving has gone.
Therefore, the sestet repeats the thought and feelings of the octave. It provides an image for
the poet’s sorrow. Millay uses nature’s beauty to reflect her earlier happiness and her current
unhappiness. Without stating it directly, the reader can see that Millay compares her life to
winter now.
Millay never tries to answer the ‘where, and why’ questions she asked at the start. She is
expressing her mood of lonesomeness and loss.
Themes
Millay broke hearts and squandered [wasted] her chances for happiness:
‘ghosts to-night, that tap and sigh upon the glass and listen for reply’.
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 feels despair at the way her life has changed like the seasons:
‘I only know that summer sang in me a little while that in me sings no more’.
Tones
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Sometimes the tone is passionate:
‘What lips my lips have kissed’.
Imagery
In the octave she uses raindrops hitting a windowpane to 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 to show the separation between the present and past.
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 an analogy for the poet herself. Without this analogy or comparison, we would know
a lot less about Millay’s feelings. The comparison or analogy is an image for the poet’s sense of
loss.]
The vanished birds stand for her vanished lovers. The lack of leaves and singing birds stands for
the lack of lovers. Nobody young desires the poet, now that she has got older. She has lost
those who would love her.
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‘boughs’
‘summer’
Poetic Devices
3. Rhyme scheme
There is a definite rhyming pattern: abbaabba cdedce
4. Rhythm
Sometimes the rhythm has a natural feeling with the run on lines and simple conversational
words.
But the rhythm is formal. The word order is frequently different than everyday speech. This
different word order is needed in order to achieve line rhymes. The rhyming gives the poem a
regular rhythm. Each line has five beats. The alliteration and assonance create music. Overall,
the poem has a repeating musical rhythm.
Despite the light formal rhythm, the poem feels like a personal story, emotionally addressed to
the reader.
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