A little "renascence" to close out National Poetry Month

[ismnotwasm]

A little "renascence" to close out National Poetry Month

Curator Eric Jentsch shares artifacts related to American Pulitzer Prize Winner (1923) and Frost Medal Recipient, Edna St. Vincent Millay (1892–1950).





An 18-cent commemorative stamp honoring Millay was issued in 1981, in Austerlitz, New York, where Millay's farmstead, Steepletop, is located. The stamp is in the collection of the National Postal Museum. © U.S. Postal Service. All rights reserved.

Born in Rockland, Maine, Millay preferred to be called Vincent instead of Edna from an early age. As a young woman she established herself in New York's Greenwich Village, where she became one of the premier feminist icons of the jazz age and one of the most the most recognized American writers of the first half of the 20th century.

She was author of not only books of poetry, but also of plays, short stories, articles and librettos. Her poetry, marked with tender, sensitive language and creative imagery, extolled feminism, beauty, and social concern, while decrying fascism, injustice, and brutality.


In 1912, at the age of 19, Millay wrote her first major work "Renascence," and entered it into a competition held by a literary anthology. Although the poem came in fourth, many, including the contest's first and second place finishers, believed Millay's poem was easily superior. The ensuing notoriety compelled a patron of the arts to pay Millay's tuition at Vassar College, where the author enrolled in 1913 at the age of 21.

The poem, a description of spiritual rebirth or "renascence," concludes with this remarkable and insightful passage:

"The world stands out on either side
No wider than the heart is wide;
Above the world is stretched the sky,
No higher than the soul is high.
The heart can push the sea and land
Farther away on either hand;
The soul can split the sky in two,
And let the face of God shine through.
But East and West will pinch the heart
That can not keep them pushed apart;
And he whose soul is flat—the sky
Will cave in on him by and by."

http://blog.americanhistory.si.edu/osaycanyousee/2013/04/a-little-renascence-to-close-out-national-poetry-month.html

(And of course this, my favorite and the favorite of many)

"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!"

[dhol82]

1. This was the theme of my high school yearbook

Have always loved this poem. However, we used mostly the beginning of the poem to highlight our progress through the four years.

ALL I could see from where I stood
Was three long mountains and a wood;
I turned and looked the other way,
And saw three islands in a bay.
So with my eyes I traced the line
Of the horizon, thin and fine,
Straight around till I was come
Back to where I’d started from;
And all I saw from where I stood
Was three long mountains and a wood.
Over these things I could not see:
These were the things that bounded me;
And I could touch them with my hand,
Almost, I thought, from where I stand.
And all at once things seemed so small
My breath came short, and scarce at all.
But, sure, the sky is big, I said;
Miles and miles above my head;
So here upon my back I’ll lie
And look my fill into the sky.
And so I looked, and, after all,
The sky was not so very tall.
The sky, I said, must somewhere stop,
And—sure enough!—I see the top!
The sky, I thought, is not so grand;
I ’most could touch it with my hand!
And reaching up my hand to try,
I screamed to feel it touch the sky.

[ismnotwasm]

4. Fantastic!

I didn't read it fully the first time. What an artist!

[LiberalEsto]

2. I first encountered Millay's writing in a high school theatre arts class

We elected to perform her short play, "Aria de Capo", because of its powerful anti-war message. This was in the spring of 1969, when the Vietnam War lay heavily on our hearts.

[redqueen]

3. I never knew much besides her most well known verses.

Not a huge poetry fan really

However after reading her page at poets.org I'm curious to read more of her work.

Thanks for posting this!