Sexuality, Politics, and Feminism in Edna St. Vincent's Poetry - A Thematic Analysis

By

TABLE OF CONTENTS

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION1

Background1

Research Question1

Significance1

Summary1

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW2

Sexual Identity in Millay's Poems2

Feminism and Millay's work2

CHAPTER 3: FEMINIST VIEWS IN MAILEY'S POETRY3

A New Woman3

CHAPTER 4: ANALYSIS4

Criticism on Millay's Poems4

Fatal Interview4

Sonnets from an Ungrafted Tree4

Make Bright the Arrows5

REFERENCES6

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION

Background

Millay has historically appealed more to women than to men. This, to some extent, lies at the base of complaints by critics about her work. Edna was eager to flaunt her sexual freedom in verse (Brittin, 2006). Millay burst onto the scene in 1912 at “the dawn of the poetic renaissance” with the publication of her coming-of-age poem “Renascence” in a compilation titled The Lyric Year (1912).

Research Question

Following research question will be addressed in this study:

RQ1: How the themes of sexual politics and feminism correlate each other in Edna's poetry?



Significance

Edna's lyric forms, still held to be exemplars of the long-standing tradition of the sonnet dating back to the Victorian era and the English Renaissance, are “an alternative to the high modernist impersonality” because of their uncomplicated structure and language.

Summary

In the first chapter, background, purpose and significance of the study are presented. In the second chapter, the researcher will present a detailed review of the themes of sexuality, politics, and feminism in Edna's poetry.

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW

Sexual Identity in Millay's Poems

Known best for her lyric eroticism and unabashed display of sexual freedom as a public figure, However, Millay's politically-charged compilation of poems written in the years preceding America's entry into World War II, Make Bright the Arrows, does not enjoy a privileged place, if any, amongst either the current literary canons of modernist verse or war poetry (Allen, 2006, 266).

Feminism and Millay's work

Feminist criticism of Millay mirrors the larger pattern in women's studies and not all assessments of her have been intended to champion her place in literature (Clark, 2003, 249). Millay challenged the political culture of her era by writing an amatory sequence when other literary forms predominated. Millay's incursions on contemporary aesthetic and gender codes not only helped reify the biographical narrative that came to subsume both her life and work, but ensured that the sequence would be radically reinterpreted by the critical community whenever aesthetic and gender ideology underwent a substantial change (Allen, 2006, 266).

CHAPTER 3: FEMINIST VIEWS IN MAILEY'S POETRY

A New Woman

In her day, Edna St. Vincent Millay was a curiosity, the ...