Thou art not lovelier than lilacs

[BrightGardens]

Thou art not lovelier than lilacs,--no,
Nor honeysuckle; thou art not more fair
Than small white single poppies,--I can bear
Thy beauty; though I bend before thee, though
From left to right, not knowing where to go,
I turn my troubled eyes, nor here nor there
Find any refuge from thee, yet I swear
So has it been with mist,--with moonlight so.
Like him who day by day unto his draught
Of delicate poison adds him one drop more
Till he may drink unharmed the death of ten,
Even so, inured to beauty, who have quaffed
Each hour more deeply than the hour before,
I drink--and live--what has destroyed some men.

Edna St. Vincent Millay

I'm having a hard time figuring out the gender of the speaker in the poem. We know Millay was bisexual and this sonnet could very easily be from the point of view of either woman or man. Personally I am inclined to think that it is a woman, with emphasis on how beauty "has destroyed some men" while she is able to endure physical qualities (however hard it may be, lines 4-7).

If it is from a woman's point of view I could turn my analysis to include those lines 4-7 in the theme, stating that although she has a tolerance of beauty unlike men, it is another more elusive quality that attracts her to women. Beauty she can bear, yet she is still attracted to the person (woman, assumingly) in question; she worships her even ("I bend before thee"--worships HER, not her beauty). Even turning her eyes away, she is unable to escape the charms of her object of attraction. The physical is gone, but the something else remains.

Without that feminine aspect the theme becomes more simplistic, with a man who claims he is able to withstand physical beauty though at some points it drives him crazy.

Thoughts? Man or woman?

[Albion]

What is this unhealthy obsession with homoerotic gender which is too often the first object of observation these days? Can we not address the merits of the poetry rather than the lavatorial recesses of the reader?

I like this poem for its sentiment alone and find readers' predilection to eroticism disturbing. Poets write from the heart and mind. Their subjects are not necessarily drawn from life and few poems are autobiographical. A topic pops into their minds and they commit it to paper motivated by the joy of writing and communicating the topic in a poetic manner. They draw upon their life experience to set the scene but would probably choose a confessional prose letter if they wished to declare their predilections to the public.

Every poet has been assailed by ignorant critics imputing unfounded insights into a work in order to suggest their superiority over the writer and to contrast their normality to the poet's deviance. "Lilacs" is a fine work of literature and will survive attempts to debase it; but please discuss enjambment, rhyme, vocabulary, the allusions of flowers, nature and their contrast with deaths from poison rather than descend into the realms of invented smut.

PS. This poem is still under copyright.

[thecatwithfish]

The final line suggests to me a male voice.

Albion - I find your out-dated approach almost insulting... I think it is quite important to understand the gender-identity of the poet and of the voice in the poem in order to understand the feeling and emotion behind it. Literary analysis is not just a matter of language, form and structure but also of reaction, response and feeling. I could spend a very long time indeed talking to you about why this is the case, I, however, have better things to do with my time than discuss the kind of backward pseudo-analysis that you suggest we take part in, ignoring the totality of the picture...

[Albion]

Numerous poems have an autobiographical origin or are triggered by some personal experience. Examples: Byron's "Lines Written beneath an Elm in the Churchyard of Harrow", Shelley's "To Wordsworth", Wordsworth's "Tintern Abbey" and much of Goethe to name but a few. Poems often reflect personal feelings or political views; but most poems are stimulated by a desire to express a viewpoint or tribute.

The use of the first person is not, however, indicative that the poet should be identified as the speaker. For example, Tennyson wrote to a correspondent of his strong objection to his being identified as the subject in his first person "Locksley Hall": "There is not one touch of autobiography in it from end to end".

The poet adopts a persona in order to express his or her sentiments. Edna's "Bluebeard" probably reflects a woman's viewpoint and may or may not reflect a personal experience. Her "Renascence" probably depicts a sentiment rather than her as subject. "Lilacs" uses many devices to which I have already drawn attention and uses the first person pronoun; but it is by no means conclusive that the last line determines either the poet's or the addressee's gender since it relates to the literary device that references a supposed male subject introduced by "Like him…".

I would find more persuasive a gender allusion based upon the opening lines comparing the addressee to several flowers, possibly a device that would occur to the gentle sex for referring to a man but also highly suggestive of a woman. However, the allusion to he who quaffs poison in increasing dosages suggests a masculine subject. It also equates the speaker with such a person (thereby dissociating Edna from the subject).

The whole is indicative of a submissive relationship conditioned by an initial infatuation that has now been overcome. In essence, the poem treats of beauty recognized but resisted despite its hypnotic attraction and enveloping power similar to mist and moonlight. It concludes with the subject's survival through conditioning by a process of increased familiarity. The poem reflects the self command and desire for independence of the subject and, in this respect, may be paralleled by the sentiments of "Bluebeard".

We do not know the poet's motivation but I think it highly probable that Edna was stimulated merely by the joy of writing rather than by any sinister motives one cares to impute.

Let us recognize the beauty of her writing and Edna as a major American poet and cease all attempts to denigrate her efforts by distasteful and careless references.