Edna

The poem has an abab rhyme pattern, and is a lyrical poem. Vincent Millay's poems she did in fact defy the times in which a woman was to operate, in her life style, and in her poems. While writing this poem Millay decided to move from where she was living to regain her freedom and stability again and to move herself from the man she had fallen in love with. The daring and independent lines reflect the charm and energy of Millay. " This poem like many others of Millay's has an abab rhyme pattern and is lyrical. Millay wrote the poem after her escape from serious, permanent commitments because she decided to be an independent woman with all the freedoms she wanted. In Millay's " I forgot in Camelot the man I loved in Rome" is a poem Millay wrote that had a spirit of liberation and independence. The poem conveys the spirit and the theme of Millay's early poetry. She showed in her lifestyle, her longing to be independent, and in her poems such as "Renascence", "My candle burns at both ends", and "I forgot in Camelot the man I loved in Rome" she displayed how she felt. Having made a full circle, she, in a sense of being exhausted sees the scope of her perception, and has organized the limitations she is prepared for the self-induced trance which will take her to the limits with nature (Davidson 524). This poem makes vivid intensity of her living: My candle burns at both ends; It will not last the night; But ah, my foes, and oh, my friends- It gives a lovely light! (Millay 792) Mary Kinzal, a known critic said that Millay's poems and dreams were "To live fully, alertly, and originally (Gurko 61). She showed this in the first few lines of "Renascence" when she wrote: All I could see from where I stood, Was three long mountains and a wood: I turned and looked another way, And saw three islands in a bay (Rollens 692). Even former acolytes, such as Anne Sexton and Sylvia Plath said "Edna Millay is so old fashioned, the lord should've made her a man (Davidson 542).