1. ) What lips my lips have kissed and when and why, 2. ) I have forgotten, and what arms have lain 3. ) Under my head till morning; but the rain 4. ) Is full of ghosts tonight, that tap and sigh 5. ) Upon the glass and listen for reply, 6.
) And in my heart there stirs a quiet pain 7. ) For unremembered lads that not again 8. ) Will turn to me at midnight with a cry. 9. ) Thus in winter stands the lonely tree, 10. ) Nor knows what birds have vanished one by one 11.
) Yet knows its boughs more silent that before 12. ) I cannot say what loves have come and gone 13. ) I only know that summer sang in me, 14. ) A little while, that sings in me no more. Edna St. Vincent Millay’s sonnet, “What lips my lips have kissed and where and why,” is about being, physically or mentally jaded, and thinking back to the torrid love of one’s youth.
The “ghosts” that haunt her are the many lovers of her past; she’s specifically trying to remember them all. She recalls the passion she experienced and how there was a certain feeling within herself. Millay shows this through her vivid imagery, use of the rain as a literary device and by paralleling herself with a lonely tree. The use of symbols sets the tone of the piece. She personifies the rain in, “But the rain/ Is full of ghosts tonight, that tap and sigh/ Upon the glass and listen for reply.” She makes the rain into another character in the poem who is asking about her past. The rain is also a symbol of being cleansed, how the memories of one love fade away due to time and human memory or the rain can be seen as a symbol of abundance, as in the abundance of lovers, in her past asking is she remembers them at all.
The Term Paper on The Canterville Ghost
The Canterville Ghost by Oscar Wilde is a hilarious and playful look at the spirit world. It takes place in an 1800 British Castle, known as Canterville Chase. Residents in the area think a ghost haunts the castle. The story has an unexpected ending as Mr. Simon’s ghost eventually befriends Virginia, the daughter of the owners of Canterville Chase. An American minister and his family live at ...
The seasons in the poem also can be seen as symbols of time passing in her life. Saying that in the height of her life she was much in love and knew what love was she says this all with four words “summer sang in me.” And as her life is in decline her lovers left her, this can be told by using “winter” as a symbol because it is the season of death and decline from life and the birds left the tree in winter. The “birds” can be seen as a literal symbol of the lovers that have left her or flown away or it can have the deeper meaning that in the last stages of our life all of our memories leave us tittering to our selves. Paralleling herself with a lonely tree really sets into the mind how she feels about love.
“What birds have vanished one by one.” By saying this she speaks about how the birds leave the tree as winter comes and how the tree does not care whether they are there or not. However, the tree does realize that life is a lot quieter. By reading this one can assume that she feels that love plays a very small role in her life over all, but in reading further she writes, “I cannot say what loves have come and gone/ I only know that summer sang in me/ A little while, it sings no more.” She sounds almost remorseful of the lovers and the memories that she has let slip by. So through use of symbols, and paralleling her self to a tree in winter, Edna St. Vincent Millay conveys her feelings of loss and remorse about her past love life and having not remembered it all.
All in all Millay’s sonnet embodies her outlook on love and growing old, in a passionate and personal way.
