'Justice Denied In Massachusetts'

The Historical Approach, is viewing literature from the perspective of that era/time-period that it was written in. By using this approach, the cultural, lingual, and social aspects of the time must be taken into account in order to fully investigate the background and/or message that the text has. The poem “Justice denied in Massachusetts”, by Edna St. Vincent Millay, was written in response to a trial of two Italian immigrants, Sacco and Vanzetti. The convicts were tried for murder and later sentenced to death. Using the historical approach, we will see what message that Millay is trying to convey the reader about, and what prior events influenced the creation of the poem.
Contrary to formalist analysis, historical criticism uses outside

“The sun that warmed our stooping backs withered the weed uprooted- We shall not feel it again.” (Millay, Line 20-22). What Millay is wanting us to understand is that the American justice system meant to protect all, has turned its back on what it is originally made of, immigrants. Stating in Millay’s Poem, “Shall the larkspur blossom or the corn grow under this cloud?”(Line 3-4), she describes how America let this injustice occur, that it was not the evidence nor the testimonials produced the tragic outcome for them, but rather their affiliation with the word ‘anarchist’. By saying “grow”, she means the progression of America as being a country where you have a right to be free, but is “clouded” by a government watching over and fearful people waiting to stop anything that doesn’t align with beliefs. “We have marched upon but cannot conquer; we have bent the blades of our hoes against the stalks of them.” (Line 7-10). Millay, as with the many others from around the world, tried to prevent the worst of outcomes from occurring, and though their fight had gone right up to the governor himself, but it did not stop the execution they view as injustice done to innocent victims. “See now the slugs and the mildew plunder. Evil does overwhelm The larkspur and the corn; We have seen them go under” (Lines 28-31). The slugs and mildew are unwanted features of a garden. The garden represents society, and the slugs and mild represent xenophobia, discrimination, and injustice that was allowed to flourish because of the fear that foreign ideas could bring destruction to the country. The actual destruction was not from immigrants but rather from the Americans who wanted to take down the negative qualities they believed the immigrants brought with them, hence “the larkspur and the corn”, which represent the positive ethnics that American