Love is Not All – Sonnet XXX
By Edna St. Vincent Millay
Love is not all: it is not meat nor drink
Nor slumber nor a roof against the rain;
Nor yet a floating spar to men that sink
And rise and sink and rise and sink again;
Love can not fill the thickened lung with breath,
Nor clean the blood, nor set the fractured bone;
Yet many a man is making friends with death
Even as I speak, for lack of love alone.
It well may be that in a difficult hour,
Pinned down by pain and moaning for release,
Or nagged by want past resolution’s power,
I might be driven to sell your love for peace,
Or trade the memory of this night for food.
It well may be. I do not think I would.
Summary of Love is Not All – Sonnet XXX
- Popularity of “Love is Not All – Sonnet XXX”: Written during the Great Depression, this beautiful sonnet by Edna St. Vincent Millay witnessed almost four consecutive publications from 1931 to 1958 in her Collected Poems published by different publishers, including the Millay Society. The sonnet is perhaps considered the best among the Fatal Interview sequence of sonnets written in response to her own love. The popularity of the sonnet lies in the beautiful merge of Shakespearean and Petrarchan elements with excellent expression about love.
- “Love is Not All – Sonnet XXX: As a Representative of Love: The speaker of the sonnet, who happens to be the poet herself, opens it declaring that love is not everything that it should take one’s life. It is not meat, drink, slumber, or refuge, and yet it makes a floating “spar” for men that makes their life vacillate between living and dying. Despite this feature, love is not breathing or blood circulation, nor can it damage any of these organs or attendant organs. Mysteriously, several men have died for the sake or lack of love. This could be due to the pain, ache, moaning, or desire for love. Then she comes to the point of her personal love saying that she may exchange this love for peace or food, but she may not be able to do it. She is in a fix about this final decision.
- Major Themes in Love is Not All – Sonnet XXX: Domination of the passion of love, confusion, and personal love are some major themes of this beautiful sonnet. The poet has argued in favor of balanced life, saying that love is not everything, nor it could kill a person by becoming some important element of life-sustaining systems. Also, she is of the view that yet it is a dominant passion that can take a person’s life, and several men have sacrificed their lives at the altar of love. Therefore, she opines that she may change things for love, yet she may not, as she is unsure about it. This confusion in exchanging love makes her feel that it is not that easy to forget or leave love. It is a personal issue for everybody, and it could lead to death or life.
Analysis of Literary Devices Used in Love is Not All – Sonnet XXX
Edna St. Vincent Millay used literary devices to enhance the impact of this poem. Some of the major literary devices are as follows.
- Assonance: Assonance is the repetition of vowel sounds in the same line, such as the sound of /i/ in “And rise and sink and rise and sink again” and the sound of /a/ and /o/ in “Love is not all: it is not meat nor drink.”
- Consonance: Consonance is the repetition of consonant sounds in the same line, such as the sound of /r/ and /s/ in “And rise and sink and rise and sink again” and the sound of /n/ and /m/ in “Yet many a man is making friends with death.”
- Enjambment: It means that a verse rolls over to the next without showing any sign of pause. This sonnet shows the use of enjambment, such as;
Nor yet a floating spar to men that sink
And rise and sink and rise and sink again;
- Imagery: Imagery is used to make readers perceive things involving their five senses. Edna St. Vincent Millay used imagery in this poem such as “Yet many a man is making friends with”, “Pinned down by pain and moaning for release” and “I might be driven to sell your love for peace.”
- Metaphor: It is a figure of speech in which an implied comparison is made between objects different in nature. The poet used the metaphor of love as if it has life and passions of its own.
- Personification: It means to attribute human emotions to inanimate objects. The poet used the personification of pain that pins down and want or desire that nags a person.
- Symbolism: Symbolism is using symbols to signify ideas and qualities, giving them symbolic meanings that are different from the literal meanings. The poem shows symbols, such as drink, rain, roof, meat, and pain to show the working of love.
Analysis of Poetic Devices Used in Love is Not All – Sonnet XXX
Poetic and literary devices are the same, but a few are used only in poetry. Here is an analysis of some of the poetic devices used in this poem.
- Diction: It means the type of language. The poem shows good use of formal, poetic, and loving diction.
- End Rhyme: It means to use verses having matching end words. Edna St. Vincent Millay shows the use of end rhyme such as drink/sink and rain/again.
- Quatrain: It is a Persian stanza having four verses. The sonnet shows the use of a quatrain, such as in the first stanza. Structurally, it has three quatrains and a couplet.
- Rhyme Scheme: This sonnet shows ABABCDCD rhyme scheme in its octave and EFEFGG in its sestet.
- Stanza: A stanza is a poetic form of some lines. There are two stanzas, with each having a different number of lines. For example, the first stanza is an octave having eight verses, and the last stanza is a sestet having six verses.
- Sestet: It is the second part of a sonnet, having six verses.
- Sonnet: This is a fourteen-lined poem having two parts. This poem is a sonnet.
- Tone: It means the voice of the text. The sonnet shows a divine, spiritual and loving tone.
Quotes to be Used
The following lines are useful to quote when talking about confusion in love.
It well may be that in a difficult hour,
Pinned down by pain and moaning for release,
Or nagged by want past resolution’s power,
I might be driven to sell your love for peace,
Or trade the memory of this night for food.
It well may be. I do not think I would.
