Analysis+2

Nicholas Cho
 * __Analysis 2__**

Edna St. Vincent Millay's poem "Hearing your words and not a word among them" describes a broken relationship Millay had with a former lover. Known for being in many short, romantic relationships during her life, Millay illustrates the darkness and intensities of a storm to show how her relationship with this lover was falling apart and the strength she gained to move on with her life. At the end of the poem, we even see Millay advocating the endurance of women like her when things like love and life are hurting them.

Millay's poem follows the pattern of an Elizabethan sonnet (with iambic pentameter and a rhyme scheme ABAB CDCD EFEF GG). She may have used this structure to divide up the various stages she went through into three quatrains and a couplet. In the first quatrain, Millay sets the tone of her poem. "Hearing your words, and not a word among them" (line 1) shows how upset Millay is and how she does not want to hear a word her lover says. The next three lines describe the coming of the storm to the island on a somewhat peaceful day. In line 2 "Tuned to my liking, on a salty day", she may have used the phrase "salty day" to show that although everything seemed pleasant at first, there seemed to be something dark and bitter coming soon. Lines 3-4 further describe the day by showing how the wind hissed as it was blowing on the trees of the island. Again, this may signify that a storm was about to come. In terms of Millay's relationship, everything probably seemed fine at first, but there may have been a dark feeling that their love for one another was about to break.

In the next quatrain, we see that the storm is arriving to the island. In lines 5-8, Millay talks about how the water "came pounding in, came running through the Gut". As the storm was arriving, a "warning whistle cried" to the people of Mantinicus Rock (an island off the coast of Maine). People were closing their doors to protect themselves from this violent storm while their children were whimpering in fear of their lives. This quatrain may describe the stage of Millay's relationship when everything was falling apart. Millay probably used words like "pounding" and "running through" to show how angry she was towards her lover for breaking her heart. At the same time though, Millay may have been like the children, fearing and whimpering about what the future might be without her lover.

The last quatrain shows that the storm is finally over. It is autumn and as the men of the island are heading out (probably to clean up the mess), we see the women standing behind in the ruins of "their gardens stripped and scattered". From this wreckage though, the women hold dahlia tubers within their hands. Dahlia tubers are the underground stem part of a plant (or in this case the dahlia) that carry buds for new dahlias to grow. Millay may have referred to the destroyed garden and the tubers to show that even though her relationship has been shattered into pieces by her lover, there is still hope in rebuilding her life again for the future.

In the final couplet, we are shown the turn of the poem. Line 13 "the wind of their endurance, driving south" refers to the courage and hope these women found to move their life onto a new path. Millay ends the poem with the line "flattened your words against your speaking mouth" to show that she has attained the courage of these women to ignore the words of her lover and to also move on with her life.

Throughout much of this poem, it is clear that Millay has gone through a number of emotional stages during the aftermath of her relationship. In this poem though, she writes it from the view of the women of the island. This may have been to show her feminist side to others and how women are just as capable as men. From lines 10-14, Millay focuses on how the women find the tubers needed to rebuild their gardens as well as the hope to rebuild the island. In the turn though, she talks about "the wind of their endurance", which she uses to silence the words she hears from her lover. Millay seems to show that the women can contribute into cleaning up the mess of the island. She is probably advocating the equal respect women deserve rather than being treated as trash in these four lines.

Overall, Millay's poem "Hearing your words and not a word among them" brings up a lot about the emotional roller coaster one can go through after losing love. However, she gives a lesson to her audience, primarily women, that even if others lose love, they should not give up. They are able to rebuild their lives and can go through life's challenges even if men are putting them down.