Edina St. Vincent Millay’s poem “Oh, Oh You Will Be Sorry for that Word” is a lyric poem in which a woman is arguing with a man that started when he said something derogatory about her reading such a large book when she is a delicate creature. The woman is obviously upset about the fact her supposed friend/lover/husband behaved badly towards her. It is a Shakespearian Sonnet because the rhyme scheme is ABAB CDCD EFEF GG with a meter that most likely resembles trochaic. The only line that does not fit into the meter is line three. The poem has Masculine Rhyme because the words that rhyme do so with the last syllable. This is evident in every line, but an example is “sly / by” (10-12.) Millay’s poem is an excellent example of endstops. Every …show more content…
The fact that they are no longer on the best of terms is well defined when she spits out “Was it my enemy or my friend I heard,” (3) to the man who is so determined that she can not do anything but be a good wife.
The fourth line is a symbolism that shows the way women are perceived in a man’s mind. “What a big book for such a little head” (4!) The “such a little head” (4) is a symbol of how men perceive a woman’s mind. Little ladies do not have to nor need to read when they are barefoot and expecting in the kitchen cooking; that is unless it’s a cookbook. It implies that the woman is incapable of reading a book that is beyond baby books, cookbooks, or the Bible. Women should only be interested in their family.
“Come, I will show you now my newest hat, / And you may watch me purse my mouth and prink” (5-6.) This line is an example of synecdoche. The use of “newest hat” (5) is used to describe a man’s view of the whole of womanhood. The hat represents the male’s perspective of woman only caring about materialistic and miniscule things. The “purse my mouth and prink” (6) is saying that he can watch as she primps and makes herself presentable for the public. She is using this as a slam to him for thinking that all women are only interested in their accessories. She is being sarcastic, but he probably does not get it because some women do not use sarcasm, so all women must not use