Edna St. Vincent Millay's Independance Without Love

Independance Without Love Edna St. Vincent Millay, a powerful feminist poet during the 1930s, wrote depicting her unique opinions on love. In I shall forget you presently, my dear, Love is Not All, and The Betrothal, she manages to make her thoughts explicit and powerful. She effortlessly articulates herself in away that makes her carefree and above the concepts and insecurities that accompany love. Edna St.Vincent Millay writes three sonnets, I shall forget you presently, my dear, Love is Not All, and The Betrothal, about the difficult and confusing pursuit that is finding true love. Edna St. Vincent Millay portrays love an unnecessary luxury of life in both I shall forget you presently, my dear and Love is Not All. In I shall forget you

She then concludes the poem with, “Whether or not we find what we are seeking / Is idle, biologically speaking”. This simple collection of lines is easily the strongest throughout the entire poem in terms of meaning. The lines, “Is idle, biologically speaking” are so powerful in the sense she messes with what love has been portrayed as to the public. Movies, TV shows, and songs make love out to be this intense journey for a life partner; for what is life without someone to share it with? But she contradicts that by saying that no, love isn’t an obligation of occupying the Earth. We were created “biologically speaking” to simply reproduce; to carrying out our bloodline in hopes of expanding the population and building upon the ecosystem. In Love is Not All, she opens with, “Love

Vincent Millay makes a clear push to convince her reader than love is meager, but contradicts her prior statements at the end of Love is Not All. Throughout the poem, she continues to compare love with things her body literally couldn’t survive without, but then concludes with, “I might be driven to sell your love for peace, / Or trade the memory of this night for food. / It well may be. I do not think I would”. She says that if given the opportunity to forget him and the times they spent together in return for peace and food she wouldn’t. These lines display her true feelings on love for she can makes the argument that love is valueless in comparison to food, but put in the situation where she could do something impactful in trade of love, she wouldn’t. Millay values love and companionship over living as many do. She writes to turn hopeful souls away from love for maybe she understands how difficult it is to know it and go without