The Galleon, Volume 1, Number 1, December 1924 Page: 38
41 p. : ill. ; 22 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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THE GALLEON
Can this be the poetry of an
imitator ? Is this the conven-
tional attitude that our Victor-
ian parlor poets and their fol-
lowers have always taken to-
ward love, and "faithfulness tili
death" and "heaven made
matches" etc? Where can we
find in literature another wom-
an with the courage to write
like this:
"What lips my lips have kissed,
and where, and why
I have forgotten, etc."
or:
"I know I am but summer to
your heart,
And not the full four seasons
of the year;
And you must welcome from
another part
Such noble moods are not
mine, my dear."
In "Renascence," which is
considered by many critics, to
be her greatest work, Millay
displays an earnest, questioning
soul. She shows a wealth of
human sympathy and a genuine
love for life. Considered from
one angle, the poem appears to
be a rebuke to those who "sigh
for rest" and would escape the
splendid struggle of livinff. With
childish wonder her fancy ex-
plores the universe, until "In-
finity came down and settled
over me." Then it is that she
becomes a part of all that lives,
a part of all suffering, all sin,
all remorse. Sickened and
weighed down with the burden,
she is driven into the grave,
where for a while she is com-
forted with its peace. But when
she remembers the beauty of
the earth above her, she prays
for a new birth, and is restored
to life with a greater apprecia-tion for nature and a new zest
for living. In the concluding
lines she expresses the philos-
ophy of the poem:
"The world stands out on either
side
No wider than the heart is
wide;
Above the world s stretched
the sky-
No higher than the soul is
high."
"But East and \Vest will pinch
the heart
That cannot keep them pushed
apart;
And he whose soul is flat--the
sky
Will cave in on h'm by and by"
Millay takes her stand em-
phatically with those who love
life. She has no time to be con-
cerned with the old sob themes
and melodramatic situations;
she is not concerned with
"maids forlorn," and "crushed
and bleeding hearts" and cruel
infidelities. And yet, in such
poems as, " A Visit to the Asy-
lum" and "The Harp Weaver"
she achieves a tragic pathos
that impresses one with its real-
iness. She loves life, but she
knows that death must come;
therefore she sings:
"Nor shall my love avail you in
that hour.
In spite of all my love you will
arise
Upon that day and wander
Galley Three
down the air
Obscurely as the unattended
flower,
It mattering not how beautiful
you were
Or how beloved above all else
that dies."
In the choice of themes she is38
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McMurry College. The Galleon, Volume 1, Number 1, December 1924, periodical, December 1924; Abilene, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth137771/m1/38/: accessed April 27, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting McMurry University Library.