Millay, for her time (1892-1950), had been called the finest writer of sonnets since Keats. Her impressive works include eleven volumes of poetry, six plays, a libretto and a book of comic articles written under the name of Nancy Boyd.
Edna Millay was also fluent in Latin and French. (She co-translated Les Fleurs du Mal.)
Millay's husband Eugen Boissevain believed that Millay's work was more significant and thus became a “house husband.” He did so without objection or complaint. Millay was married to Eugen for twenty-six years. In his role, Eugen assured that the laundry was done and meals were prepared in a timely manner. Eventually he relinquished his import business.
When Eugen's family money was taken by the Nazis, the two, Eugen and Edna, lived on advances from Edna's publisher.
Edna was not just “blessed” with literary success. She also went through some painful ordeals. She endured intestinal surgery; a spine and arm injury after being thrown from a car; and, suffered two nervous breakdowns.
Millay was conventional as far as her writing. Modernism had been around for awhile and the advocates of this style did not recognize Millay's poetry as newly created. Modernists assumed Shakespeare was a writer of “his time.” Millay's poems seemed to be equivalent in design to that of Shakespeare to them. The modernists reasoned a poet must write different than Shakespeare in form.
The whole idea or concept behind Modernism was for the poetry (itself) to reveal the artist.
Edna, additionally, lost connection as she lived a way from New York at a Berry farm in upstate New York as well as “Ragged Island,” a private preserve off the Main coast. She also “wintered” at Sanibel Island in Florida. The effect was that her social absence from New York excluded her from further nurturing her career. She distanced herself in the second-half of her life taking fewer calls and answering fewer letters-concerns that were prevalent in the minds of other devoted writers. Millay was most indifferent to the movement of Modern Literature into the world of academia.
The poetry of Millay was of an earlier period and not symbolic of the time wherein Modernism prevailed. Thus, she was viewed by some as a bit of a “lightweight.” Although, her works were excellent, they could hardly be equated to anything offered in the literature works under Modernism. Sadly, her day had come and gone by the time she reached the second portion of her life. What made matters worse; toward the end of her life Millay uttered harsh criticism toward “Icons” of the profession: illustrating her own self-importance was perhaps a mistake!
Sent to Vassar, during the beginning of her career, by a stranger due to her extraordinary talent, Millay was a true tribute of her time. Although, her time had “come and gone” through the middle portion of her life, her nearly perfect form and works live on tirelessly through each and every generation.
Following is one of the excellent writing examples of form and substance of the great author: Edna St. Vincent Millay (1892-1950):
Conscientious Objector - by Edna St. Vincent Millay
I shall die, but that is all that I shall do for Death.
I hear him leading his horse out of the stall; I hear the
clatter on the barn floor
He is in haste; he has business in Cuba, Business in the Balkans,
many calls to make this morning
But I will not hold the bridle while he cinches the girth.
And he may mount by himself; I will not give him a leg up.
Though he flick my shoulders with his whip, I will not tell him
which way the fox ran.
With his hoof on my breast, I will not tell him where the black
boy hides in the swamp.
I shall die, but that is all that I shall do for Death; I am not on
his payroll.
I will not tell him the whereabouts of my friends nor of my
enemies either
Though he promise me much, I will not map him the route to
any man's door
Am I a spy in the land of the living, that I would deliver men
To Death?
Brother, the password and the plans of our city are safe with me;
never through me
Shall you be overcome
