"And life goes on forever like the gnawing of a mouse"

[icepixie]

Along with finishing Midnight's Children, I renewed my acquaintance with Edna St. Vincent Millay today. Although, yes, I'm writing my thesis on Boland, and I've always loved Yeats, Millay might actually be my favorite poet. Well, tied for first, anyway. I always think of the latter half of my teenage years when I think of her, because I discovered "Renascence" when I was perhaps sixteen and fell utterly in love with it. (Here, read it. Very melodramatic, yes? You can see why a teenager would love it.) Then my AP English teacher gave me a volume of her selected poetry as a graduation gift, and I discovered, oh, pretty much everything in A Few Figs from Thistles and Second April, and just...ah, I think it's wonderful. She wrote a lot about grief and mourning, which perhaps turns people off, but which I always thought was beautiful.

Now that I'm no longer a teenager, I find some of my old favorites even more nuanced. I think I've begun to better understand the aura of ephemerality that hangs around poems like "Recuerdo" and "First Fig" ("My candle burns at both ends;/It will not last the night;/But ah, my foes, and oh, my friends--/It gives a lovely light!"). "The Un-explorer" also makes more sense to me now that I am older.

However, I am dismayed to discover that she's not as well-known as I thought she was. (The MLA database has been shattering illusions right and left tonight.) Hence, a poll:

[Poll #1423068]

Comments

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

I have read her, but not at school or university, just in passing. But it's probably worth noting that I'm British!

(Read Boland at school, though, as part of a themed collection on culture and loss.)

[icepixie]

I have read her, but not at school or university, just in passing. But it's probably worth noting that I'm British!

Hee. Yeah, she's definitely not someone I would've expected the average non-American to know. But I had figured she was more well-known and well-criticized over here than she apparently is.

(Read Boland at school, though, as part of a themed collection on culture and loss.)

Hooray! She's still not very well-known over here, sadly, but then again I've run into people who've never even heard of Yeats, so I can't say as I'm surprised.