Edna St. Vincent Millay's Sonnet 71

The sonnets “Particle Physics” by Julie Kane “Sonnet 71” by Edna St. Vincent Millay both describe memories of a love lost, with Kane’s piece presenting the opportunity for deeper analysis which can be aided by a comparison to Millay’s work. Particle Physics is a poem written from the perspective of a speaker addressing their ex-spouse. The poem is presumably written from Kane’s perspective addressed to her ex-husband after her divorce as she, like the speaker in the poem, is from Boston. She opens the poem with a simile of photons that remain paired even when flying in opposite directions for eternity, noting that the relationship of divorcees is similar. At the volta, the speaker describes watching a Red Sox game, and knowing that from wherever

Vincent Millay’s “Sonnet 71,” the speaker begins by describing the pain of a love lost, unknown whether due to death or other circumstance, using metaphors and imagery about nature to describe her mourning. After the volta the speaker laments that she is reminded of her grief everywhere, to the extent that even when she finds places that he had never been, this realization itself reminds her of him and she is once again plunged into agony. The two sonnets utilize the elements of the fixed Italian sonnet form to express the emotions that come with memories of love lost, though the circumstances of the past relationship differ, focusing on how memories of their past relationship emerge without warning. Compared to Millay, Kane puts a refreshing contemporary spin on the sonnet, both in form and content, while exploring a similar emotional

Both poems have a volta between the octave and sestet, typical of Italian sonnets. “Particle Physics” does not follow a formal rhyme scheme, which is unusual for a sonnet. Kane rhymes sporadically such as in lines 2 and 4 with ‘time’ and ‘dime,’ and again in lines 6 and 8 with ‘again’ and ‘then’ (Kane 2, 4, 6, 8), but the lines between these do not rhyme. The final two lines of the poem also rhyme. As seen in “Sonnet 71,” typical Italian sonnets follow a rhyme scheme similar to ABBAABBA CDEECD, though the sestet can vary slightly in pattern. Kane’s octave does not follow the strict pattern that is standard for Italian sonnets, and the final rhyming couplet is typical of English, rather than Italian, sonnets indicating that Kane could have intended to write a hybrid sonnet. Kane’s deviations from the strict formalities of a sonnet makes her piece seem less rigid and more contemporary, whereas Millay’s reads as traditional and