Topic > Analysis of the poem "Love is not everything: it is neither flesh nor drink"

IndexIntroduction"Love is not everything"analysis of the poemConclusionReferencesIntroductionThe poem uses forms and conventions to suggest different interpretations to words or to evoke responses intense. Poetry is a piece of writing that shares the nature of speech which is rhythmic usually metaphorical and often displays formal elements such as meter, rhyme and stanza structure. The words written in a poem express ideas or emotions in a powerful, vivid, and imaginative style. Indeed, emotion is the controlling force behind poems. The poem I chose to describe is “Love is not all: it is neither flesh nor drink” by Edna St. Vincent Millay. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay "Love Isn't Everything," written by Edna St. Vincent Millay, depicting her speaker carefully contemplating the real value of love in one's life. Millay showed the development of the speaker's position on the topic through a combination of poetic devices and stylistic features. The poem is written as a sonnet with a stanza containing fourteen lines of iambic pentameter. Millay organized the poem in such a way as to illustrate the speaker's thought process to the reader. As during the first six lines, or sestet, the speaker expresses pessimistic views regarding the inadequacies of love which are suddenly met with a sudden transition to a final sestet in which the speaker considers the value that love has in his life personal."Love is not everything"poetry analysisMillay chose to set up his poem as a Shakespearean sonnet. The sonnet is a poem of fourteen lines written in iambic pentameter, using one of many rhyme schemes and adhering to a tightly structured thematic organization. There are two models from which sonnets are formed: the Petrarchan and the Shakespearean. Shakespearean, or known as English sonnet, follows a different set of rules. Here, three quatrains and a couplet follow this rhyme scheme: abab, cdcd, efef, gg. The couplet plays a vital role, usually arriving in the form of a conclusion, amplification or even refutation of the previous three stanzas, creating an epiphanic quality until the end. It has 14 lines and a designated rhyme scheme that includes a signature couplet. Millay exudes a negative sense of what love is not. “Love cannot fill the swollen lung with breath / Nor cleanse the blood, nor mend the broken bone, Yet many men are befriending death, Even as I speak, just for lack of love” In the first six lines , the poet provides a negative definition of what love is not, ending with a somewhat surprising transition: Without love, one "makes friends with death." This change causes the reader to suddenly stop to contemplate the sharp irony of the closing octave. . Negative sentiment, as seen in these three lines, has very bold metaphors to convey that negativity to the listener. This is a profound difference from the last eight lines of the poem where it raises a new line of thought for the listener to consider. This sudden change of emotion about love makes the listener take the time to appreciate the irony of the difference in his original statement. In the last six lines of the sonnet, Millay begins to wonder whether she would sell the love of food or the memory of love for clarity of mind. “I might be moved to sell your love for peace, / Or trade the memory of this night for food. / It could be, I don't think I would", these lines specify the doubt that she would exchangenever love with something. These particular lines offer a solution to the sonnet, but still leave doubts as to whether she is willing to sell love in any form. The sonnet ends on a surprisingly ambiguous note that expresses deep doubts; the poet can say, "I don't think I would," but he cannot say with certainty that he wouldn't. The end of the poem is an empirical message that addresses the question of depth, importance and transitory nature of love. The poem “Love Isn't Everything” by Edna St. Vincent Millay is about a young woman who doesn't believe in the power of love. The poem talks about the author's experience and her thoughts on love. “Love Isn't Everything” takes us through Millay's vision of love and the things that love cannot provide. This view is emphasized by the use of poetic devices, including rhyme, repetition, and alliteration. The structure, meter and rhyme scheme are all conventional. It consists of three quatrains and a couplet at the end. This poem is a contemplation by the speaker on all the ways humans suffer for love. Metaphor is a figure of speech that, for rhetorical effect, directly refers to one thing while mentioning another. In the lines “Nailed by pain, tormented by need or driven to sell your love” The only one who can immobilize, torment and drive is a human or a person. In the poem, pain, desire and love are compared to the making of a human being through joint activity. For example, pain cannot define something, and desire or want cannot torment someone. Another example is in the sentence "I might be moved to sell your love for peace, or to trade the memory of this night for food." Millay could not “sell” the love of the person to whom the “peace” is addressed or exchange the “memory” of the night spent with that person for “food”. He uses the metaphor to show that if he could make impossible trades, he wouldn't do it. In the lines "Nor yet a floating rod for men who sink, and rise and sink and rise and sink again." Millary compares love to something physically critical to human survival, a “spar.” In this comparison, it's something that a man on a sinking ship would desperately want as a way to strengthen his damaged ship. Love would have been of little use to him at that critical moment. Dictation is the language the writer chooses to express a specific message. The author uses the words in the lines “meat,” “drink,” “sleep,” and “roof” to compare the basic necessities of life. These are the basic necessities that are important to survive in our daily life. Irony is the use of words to convey a meaning opposite to its literal meaning. “Love is not everything” The author believes that love is not everything, love cannot save you from hunger or thirst, life cannot keep you alive, love cannot heal you from any problem that you have. "I might be moved to sell your love for peace, or trade the memory of this night for food, perhaps, but I don't think I would." No matter what the author explains or believes about love, there is a moment when she is in trouble, she has to say that she might sell her love for peace or trade the memory of that night for food, while saying that love is not everything, love is nothing. The author needs love to save her life. The images are shown in the lines "Nor yet a floating rod for the men who sink and rise and sink and rise and sink again." Millay uses imagery to thoroughly communicate the struggle to her reader. Through his words, the image of a man struggling to breathe in an unfathomably treacherous body of water is conjured in the minds of his audience. In the first ones/10222/60778)