A Look into Edna St. Vincent Millay’s Poem

Vincent Millay could be justified by the fact that readers can easily relate to it because it talks about a universal theme, which is love. Although it reeks of regret and loneliness, the poet effectively successfully used palpable symbols and words to describe the past events that transpired in her life. In the poem, the speaker casts herself as a â€Å"lonely tree†. One writer, Epstein (2001) proclaims that this poem is â€Å"a summing up of [the author’s] love life to date, and an occasion to invoke the classic themes of elegy, the tempus fugit and the ubi sunt† (p. 139): What lips my lips have kissed, and where, and why I have forgotten, and what arms have lain Under my head till morning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . And in my heart there stirs a quiet pain For unremembered lads that not again Will turn to me at midnight with a cry. Thus in the winter stands the lonely tree, Nor knows what birds have vanished one by one, Yet knows its boughs more silent than before. It seems that the speaker in the poem is an aging lady signified by the songless tree. Indeed, she is an epitome of loneliness and regret, one that we might be tempted to read as a prototype of abandoned womanhood, pathetic and powerless. Male desire in the love sonnets where the woman as a speaker always masquerades feminine weakness and sentimentality; often beseeching, and consumed by desire. However, when a male lover speaks, it would imply â€Å"authority of suffering and, perhaps more importantly, with the authority of convention†. When Millay masquerades as a male poet masquerading as a lovesick woman, the â€Å"sense of where sincerity meets gesture and how authority aligns itself with gender is confused† (Freedman, 1995, p. 113). In its structure, the poem is classified as a sonnet that has a particular rhyming pattern: abbaabba cdedce. The poem uses alliteration and assonance. It is also rich in naturally-occurring symbols, which all readers can easily connect. The poem begins with a one-sentence octave that presents the situation in which the narrator finds herself–inside a house during the rain, reminiscing about her past and forgotten lovers. The inverted sentence structure of the first two lines almost suggests a question rather than a statement: How many lovers were there? The alliterations in the first line additionally emphasize the repetitiveness of the narrator’s sexual encounters. At the same time, the perfect tense mean that this phase of her life has been completed, and the body part symbolisms of lips, arms, and head imply her distance from the experience. In the third line, Millay moves to the present tense, where she describes the memories of her lovers (using a ghost metaphor) aroused by the rain, a symbol for gloom and melancholia. These are the lovers that â€Å"tap and sigh†. The narrator seems insinuating that the lovers themselves are irrelevant. For the same reason, â€Å"Millay picks a metaphor that hints at facelessness and lack of welcome and resonates with the specific time of the midnight hour†. The central phrase in this section is â€Å"quiet pain,† an â€Å"almost-oxymoron suggesting that the narrator’s grief is muted or accepted† (Schurer, 2005). As signified by the forward movement of tenses, Millay gives the readers a slight glimpse of things to come as well: However, undeniably, she   regrets everything and she expects no intimacy in the future. In the end, the female narrator seems not interested in the identity of her lovers as in the memory of the emotions they allowed her to experience.   Despite the sadness and regret, the narrator presented peace or redemption as a â€Å"faint echo of the emotion of love from her youth† (Schurer, 2005). Despite the lonely themes and symbols, we can sense of equality in love; to the demand by women that they be allowed to enter the world of adventure and experiment in love which men have long inhabited. However, Millay does not sound to be any feminist to argue for that equality. She just makes it subtle, exhibits it in this poem and turns it into beauty. Works Cited Epstein, Daniel Mark. What Lips My Lips Have Kissed: The Loves and Love Poems of Edna St. Vincent Millay. New York: Holt, 2001. Freedman, Diane P., ed. Millay at 100: A Critical Reappraisal. Carbondale, IL: Southern Illinois University Press, 1995. Schurer, Norbert. â€Å"Millay’s what lips my lips have kissed, and where, and why†, The Explicator, 63.2 (Winter 2005): 94-97. A Look into Edna St. Vincent Millay’s Poem Vincent Millay could be justified by the fact that readers can easily relate to it because it talks about a universal theme, which is love. Although it reeks of regret and loneliness, the poet effectively successfully used palpable symbols and words to describe the past events that transpired in her life. In the poem, the speaker casts herself as a â€Å"lonely tree†. One writer, Epstein (2001) proclaims that this poem is â€Å"a summing up of [the author’s] love life to date, and an occasion to invoke the classic themes of elegy, the tempus fugit and the ubi sunt† (p. 139): What lips my lips have kissed, and where, and why I have forgotten, and what arms have lain Under my head till morning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . And in my heart there stirs a quiet pain For unremembered lads that not again Will turn to me at midnight with a cry. Thus in the winter stands the lonely tree, Nor knows what birds have vanished one by one, Yet knows its boughs more silent than before. It seems that the speaker in the poem is an aging lady signified by the songless tree. Indeed, she is an epitome of loneliness and regret, one that we might be tempted to read as a prototype of abandoned womanhood, pathetic and powerless. Male desire in the love sonnets where the woman as a speaker always masquerades feminine weakness and sentimentality; often beseeching, and consumed by desire. However, when a male lover speaks, it would imply â€Å"authority of suffering and, perhaps more importantly, with the authority of convention†. When Millay masquerades as a male poet masquerading as a lovesick woman, the â€Å"sense of where sincerity meets gesture and how authority aligns itself with gender is confused† (Freedman, 1995, p. 113). In its structure, the poem is classified as a sonnet that has a particular rhyming pattern: abbaabba cdedce. The poem uses alliteration and assonance. It is also rich in naturally-occurring symbols, which all readers can easily connect. The poem begins with a one-sentence octave that presents the situation in which the narrator finds herself–inside a house during the rain, reminiscing about her past and forgotten lovers. The inverted sentence structure of the first two lines almost suggests a question rather than a statement: How many lovers were there? The alliterations in the first line additionally emphasize the repetitiveness of the narrator’s sexual encounters. At the same time, the perfect tense mean that this phase of her life has been completed, and the body part symbolisms of lips, arms, and head imply her distance from the experience. In the third line, Millay moves to the present tense, where she describes the memories of her lovers (using a ghost metaphor) aroused by the rain, a symbol for gloom and melancholia. These are the lovers that â€Å"tap and sigh†. The narrator seems insinuating that the lovers themselves are irrelevant. For the same reason, â€Å"Millay picks a metaphor that hints at facelessness and lack of welcome and resonates with the specific time of the midnight hour†. The central phrase in this section is â€Å"quiet pain,† an â€Å"almost-oxymoron suggesting that the narrator’s grief is muted or accepted† (Schurer, 2005). As signified by the forward movement of tenses, Millay gives the readers a slight glimpse of things to come as well: However, undeniably, she   regrets everything and she expects no intimacy in the future. In the end, the female narrator seems not interested in the identity of her lovers as in the memory of the emotions they allowed her to experience.   Despite the sadness and regret, the narrator presented peace or redemption as a â€Å"faint echo of the emotion of love from her youth† (Schurer, 2005). Despite the lonely themes and symbols, we can sense of equality in love; to the demand by women that they be allowed to enter the world of adventure and experiment in love which men have long inhabited. However, Millay does not sound to be any feminist to argue for that equality. She just makes it subtle, exhibits it in this poem and turns it into beauty. Works Cited Epstein, Daniel Mark. What Lips My Lips Have Kissed: The Loves and Love Poems of Edna St. Vincent Millay. New York: Holt, 2001. Freedman, Diane P., ed. Millay at 100: A Critical Reappraisal. Carbondale, IL: Southern Illinois University Press, 1995. Schurer, Norbert. â€Å"Millay’s what lips my lips have kissed, and where, and why†, The Explicator, 63.2 (Winter 2005): 94-97.

Questions Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 25

Questions - Assignment Example iver products that carry out similar functions, it is imperative to distinguish one product from another, detailing what is different and what makes a particular product special. This can only be done through live demonstration. After reviewing the RFP Tutorial from the lecture this week, share your thoughts about the steps outlined for creating an RFP. What value does an RFP bring to finding and buying the right HRIS system? What are some of the risks in using an RFP process? The steps that have been outlined in the development of an RFP are such that they clarify the situation to both the parties involved i.e. the vendors and the customer. The customer highlights their requirements in a clearly and orderly manner and as such enables the vendor to understand what is required from him and to respond accordingly. The steps benefit both parties as it eases the purchasing of products and services and accelerates the bidding process. In relation to an HRIS system, the RFP enables one to review their current situation, note what is missing, communicate their requirements and need for change and finally request proposals from vendors. It enables one to evaluate proposals from vendors according to a common blueprint delivered to all vendors and find those that have meet all the conditions stated while eliminating those that were unable to. One of the main risks of an RFP process is that the vendors may utilize unknown resources (Sant, 2004). The vendor may use third party resources in order to complete some components of the product. This may lead to complications in the future as the company has to deal with more members who are not included in the contract. Another risk is that the RFP may have an imprecise service level agreement thus causing problems after implementation of the product. The third risk is that the vendor my compromise the project so as to fit the selection criteria. If cost is the main criteria, the vendor may under-bid or cut corners thus causing

EMBA 560 Executive position week 4 discussion 4 Essay

EMBA 560 Executive position week 4 discussion 4 - Essay Example It brings to mind the famous words of Alfred Lord Tennyson: â€Å"Theirs not to make reply, Theirs not to reason why. Theirs but to do and die.† The poem â€Å"The Charge of the Light Brigade† is full of brio and bluster, but all the same the 600 soldiers it described all charged to their death without knowing why. Had their leaders explained why they had to make the charge, then the soldiers would have known that â€Å"someone had blunder’d† and probably would have declined to charge. Many executives avoid having to explain the â€Å"why† because it invites dialogue and discussion, it engages the followers to scrutinize the rationale of the action plan and to offer their own opinions, questions, and suggestions. It brings the followers to the level of the executive even for but the duration of the question’s consideration. Reasoning brings people to the common level that logic imposes on people. When a person explains why, he/she lays before his audience the thought process that led him/her to the action plan. The thought process is therefore laid bare to the audience for their consideration – and judgment. The judgment may be favorable, and it may be not. In case it is not, at least to some people, then the natural human behavior would be to ask questions which the person doing the explanation. If that person was in a position of leadership, and he could not defend his logic from the questions, then it reflects on his followers’ perception of him as a leader. 2.A link to the Martin Luther King "I Have a Dream Speech" can be found in the webliography.   The full speech is only 17 minutes long and well worth your time.   There are valuable lessons for executives in the structure and delivery of the talk.   Listen to and analyze the speech.   What makes this talk so inspiring? The speech itself is full of imagery, metaphors, and descriptive adjectives. An example of a metaphor is the likening of the Declaration of Independence as a check or promissory note, and continued discrimination to the default of the check. It also makes use of repeated phrases â€Å"Go back to –â€Å" , â€Å"I have a dream-â€Å", and â€Å"Let freedom ring –â€Å" mentioned repeatedly draws emphasis to specific points and images. The speech was effective in creating a sense of urgency (â€Å"Now†), and drawing emphasis on the immediacy of a full and impartial resolution. Structurally, the speech is effective because it first makes the case for the legitimacy of the colored people’s plea for equality, calling upon the promise of the Declaration of Independence declaring all men equal. Then while it praises the new militancy of the colored people, it also cautions against violence and distrust against white people and points out that freedom and equality for the blacks is necessarily linked to the enjoyment of freedom of the whites. After that, Dr. King creates a visio n of blacks and whites living harmoniously together as equals – his famous â€Å"I have a dream† series of proclamations. He quotes profusely from popular patriotic songs (â€Å"My country tis of thee†) and finally, he ends with a well-known Negro spiritual and makes it the high point of the entire speech. In the manner of delivery, Dr. King makes well-placed pauses, and in some places runs on from one sentence to the next to maintain momentum. The sentences were longer in the beginning and the imageries delivered with emphasis, and towards the end as momentum was built up the sentences became shorter and more