In the 1923 modern Italian sonnet, “What lips my lips have kissed, and where, and why” Edna St. Vincent Millay narrates how numerous loves in her life ultimately came to an end and how miserable she felt because of those losses. Millay depicts the explicit meaning of sonnet by using many of different aspects of its form, such as its mood, structure, turns, and particularly the powerful metaphor. This sonnet is centered on two major themes, namely change and loss. The season imagery used by Millay makes the theme of change most apparent. Although most of the sonnet revolves around the theme of loss, it is most apparent in the last couple of lines. While it is quite evident that Millay is recalling the numerous love affairs that she had in her younger days and the grief of losing them, the purpose of this paper is to analyze this sonnet, and develop ideas and principles from it in detail.
Obviously, Millay is the speaker in this sonnet, and she is lamenting how she can no longer feel the touch of her former lovers. Millay seems to be conflicted because she cannot meet the “unremembered lads” that were once in her life and she cannot she feel their touch, and the memories and the pain for them haunt her now. From the melancholic tone of the sonnet and the metaphor of “the lonely tree” that the poet compares herself to, it can be inferred that she is displeased and disappointed by the way she is aging. Although Millay has phrased the beginning of the poem to appear like a question, it actually continues into the next line. Millay seems to be asking, “What lips my lips have kissed, and where, and why” (1) because apparently she has forgotten with whom she shared these sensual experiences and she wants to remember these memories.
In the next two lines she says that “the rain is full of ghosts tonight” (3-4) stating how these memories are haunting her. Her heart “stirs in quiet pain,” (6) because she is not able to remember her former lovers and she has become frustrated because the ghosts are waiting for her to reply. She also metaphorically compares her inability to remember the arms of her forms lovers that she had laid on to “the lonely tree” in winter that does not know the birds that once sat on its branches. In line 11, Millay realizes that her “boughs are more silent than before.” This is when she reveals that the pain of loss she is feeling is not because she lost her lovers but more because she cannot remember them. Millay concludes the poem by comparing the delight and pleasure that she felt in the arms of her former lovers to “summer” and she says that summer “sings in me no more,” stating that she no longer recover or retrieve these feelings.
Apparently Millay is narrating this poem is at night since she says that “the rain is full of ghosts tonight” and it seems to be taking place at a moment in her life when she is aging and she no longer has any lovers in her life as she did in the past. Although Millay does explicitly state this, but it can be assumed that she is in her own home, maybe in her bedroom, and she can hear the “tap and sigh upon the glass” (4-5) of her bedroom window. Apparently, it is not only the haunting memories of her past that have compelled her to speak of her lost lovers, but even perhaps the feeling of loneliness and this rainy night also serve as a motivation.
As mentioned, this is an Italian sonnet, which means it is written in iambic pentameter and contains fourteen lines. However, while the traditional line scheme of an Italian sonnet is ‘a-b-b-a, a-b-b-a, c-d-c-d-c-d,’ Millay defers from this scheme in the last six lines of the sonnet. She has chosen true rhyme in “tree” and “me,” but placing the words “one” and “gone” at the end of the next two lines, she has used slant rhyme. In additional, even though she has used true rhyme in “before” and “more,” she has placed them in such a way that the rhyme scheme does not match the traditional rhyme scheme of an Italian sonnet. Readers finishing the poem are thrown off balance and the rhyme is also thrown off because the C line contains “before” and the D line contains “more.” Apparently, Millay has cleverly made it seem as if her sonnet’s subject matter of forgotten memories has altered its structure. She makes it seem as if is so confused and lost that she even forgot the right rhyme scheme.
Millay has included devices of sound in her rhetoric. For instance, she has used alliteration in the first line, “What lips [] where and why.” Since the sonnet begins with “What lips,” it is as if the feeling of a question is being carried along throughout this phrase. However, at the same time it can also assumed as if she is remembering the fond memories of those lips and declaring “What lips[!]” However, this assumption is incorrect since this rhetoric continues to the next line where she says that she has “forgotten what arms have lain.” It is obvious that she is not declaring the feelings she felt, rather she is lamenting the loss of these feelings and lovers she shared them with.
Millay’s use of imagery, metaphors and personification reveals the inclusion of figurative language in her choice of words. She depicts her attempt to recover or retrieve her sensual experience and taker the readers back to those moments by using power imagery in the line, “Will turn to me at midnight with a cry.” In the third line, there seems to be a specific reason why Millay has used a semi-colon followed by the word “but.” The focus of readers is shifted, causing them to feel emphatic for her because she cannot remember her past lovers whose lips she had kissed. Millay also uses the “Thus” as a transition word in the beginning of the sestet to give the readers a clue of the natural shift from the octave to the sestet. There is where the poet uses the metaphor of the “lonely tree” in winter, comparing herself to it, and her inability to remember her lovers to its inability to remember “the birds” that once sat on its “boughs.”
The final couplet of the sonnet is not rhymed, and the lines “I only know that summer sang in me a little while” contain a metaphor and personification that Millay has used to wrap up her grief, concluding that the joy she felt with her lovers is lost forever. The natural construction of an Italian sonnet works well for the feelings that Millay is conveying through this sonnet. She has used the first eight lines to set up the conflict, where her torment and her loneliness have been dramatized. She has used the last six lines to resolve the earlier conflict in a natural way by comparing herself to the “lonely tree” in winter that longs for summer, just like she longs for the memories of her lovers, even though she cannot have them back anymore. Another difference between the octave and the sestet of this sonnet is that Millay refers to herself directly in the first eight lines, then addresses herself more metaphorically, and finally shifts back to addressing herself directly in the final two lines.
Millay enhances the tone of her sonnet by using iambic pentameter and the regular patterns of her speech give the tone of the sonnet a natural rhythm. This transforms the readers into confidantes, making them feel as if Millay is sharing her most intimate emotions while conversing with them. Of course, this sonnet is less conversational and more formal because of the dramatic nature of its rhyme. However, the harmonious way in which Millay has used the sonnet’s melancholic tone, rhyme, and rhythm, allows the sonnet to draw out relevant pathos by connecting with the readers. However, at the same time, Millay succeeds at leaving enough distance, allowing her sonnet not to become an over sentimental melodrama.
Although, Millay is undoubtedly talking about love in this sonnet, but she is not talking about love using traditional Petrarchan vanity. Millay talks about love from a more realistic perspective, making it easier for her readers to relate to the sonnet and the feelings she is conveying. The themes of loss and change that Millay focuses on throughout her sonnet are very real and just about every person out there has felt them in some way or the other. The absolutely charming and fascinating metaphor used by Millay allows the readers to thoroughly understand the meaning of her sonnet. Unlike other sonnet, the way Millay has written this sonnet tends to affect readers in a different way. Millay allows readers to examine her most intimate feelings, while at the same time; she also forces readers to remember their own emotional experience and lovers from the past or present. Everyone who reads What lips my lips have kissed, and where, and why by Edna St. Vincent Millay will definitely connect to it, and will be able to compare this sonnet to their own life.
Works Cited
Millay, Edna St. Vincent. "What lips my lips have kissed, and where, and why." Collected Poems by Edna St. Vincent Millay. New York: Harper & Brothers Publishers, 1956. Print.
