Edna St. Vincent Millays Sonnet I, Being Born a Woman...

Edna St. Vincent Millays Sonnet I, Being Born a Woman and Distressed Edna St. Vincent Millay’s sonnet, â€Å"I, Being Born a Woman and Distressed,† serves as an excellent example of a multi-faceted piece. From one angle, it is simply a Petrarchan sonnet, written with a slight variation on rhyme scheme – but that variation, taken deeper, reveals new layers of meaning. Added to Millay’s choice of meter and end-stop, along with a background of Millay’s person, this sonnet seems not so â€Å"simple† after all. Millay, though she married in 1923, was known to have extramarital affairs, purportedly with both women and men. (wikipedia.com) In the context of this particular sonnet, such seems revealing indeed – for it seems the speaker of†¦show more content†¦In Wordsworth’s sonnet, he uses only the four rhymes to show that, even in constraining himself, he is still free. He may be confined to a cell or a rhyme scheme, but it is in such confinements that he finds liberty. Millay, too, is playing off of this idea – simply by being a woman she is confined by society, but through her poetry she can recognized for the brilliant writer she is; hence, she quite literally frees her poetic reputation by constraining herself to such strict bounds. The irony in this reference to Wordsworth’s work, however, is the contrasting subject matters – he writes of metaphorical nuns, while she writes of rejection and lovers. The second interpretation of Millay’s constrained rhyme scheme is a fair bit simpler. Her choice of words throughout the work is calm and cool – distanced from the audience. There is none of the anger that usually accompanies a lovers’ breakup; Millay is reserved, restraining her emotions. This translates through to her rhyme scheme, which is also reserved. Here, she pulls back both from her lover, and from tradition. The sonnet’s meter, on the other hand, is a bit more erratic, and betrays more feeling. Most of the piece is in a steady iambic pentameter, but it varies – four times – just after the â€Å"turn† (line 8) of the sonnet. Three ofShow MoreRelatedAnalysis Of Aunt Jennifers Tigers By Adrienne Rich1103 Words   |  5 Pagesâ€Å"Aunt Jennifer’s Tigers† by Adrienne Rich and â€Å"[I, being born a woman and distressed]† by Edna St. Vincent Millay are two poems prevalently known to address feminist issues. While both poems share a common theme, they offer significantly different points of view concerning agency. The fear and sorrow described in â€Å"Aunt Jennifer’s Tigers† evoke ideas of misogyny and objectification, while the boldness spoken in â€Å"[I, being born a woman and distressed]† suggests increased women’s agency and empowermentRead MoreNora Was A Poor Wife1465 Words   |  6 Pageswas to flee. Too often people run away from situations that seem difficult and absolve themselves of any responsibility. Nora chose this action because she believed that what was it meant to be strong. Having observed the behavior of men, who she as being powerful and self-directed, she interpreted that behavior as selfish and then credited her own selfish behavior as powerful. She did so: Ignoring the fact that she was abandoning her family, ignoring how she was abandoning any responsibility for her