Sonnet 29 (Analysis)

http://englishlanguageliterature.com/2011/02/17/sonnet-29-edna-st-vincent-millay/

In Sonnet 29, the loss of love and the bitter feelings of pain are emphasized. The one phrase which is repeated throughout the poem as a refrain is, “pity me not”. These words are repeated so many times that the reader is compelled to think if they are actually being said in their true meaning. It is almost as if the poet wants to be pitied and is only making use of bitter sarcasm by saying, “pity me not”. The poet writes:

“Pity me not because the light of the day at the end of the day, no longer walks the sky”

The significance of this line is the fact that the poet emphasizes on the fading of light and not the shining of the light. The negative side of the story is picked, suggesting that the poet is a pessimist. Therefore, the poet also perceives the emotion of love with pessimism and negativity because she compares it to images of loss, such as the “waning of the moon”, the destruction of a beautiful flower by the wind, the wreckage of ships bought onto the beach by the tide and fading away of light. The fact that she compares her love to a beautiful flower destroyed, suggests that she once did have a positive energy towards love and was happy. It shows that her heart has still not accepted the reality of pain and loss in love, although the heart knows that love always comes to an end.

The poem suggests that the poet is so deeply saddened and depressed at the possible loss of her love that she cannot bear to move on. She is stuck at the same point and it is destroying her and making her even more miserable than she was when she lost her love. The Sonnet portrays a negative and dark picture of love and at some point even disheartens the reader as he/she gets such a bitter feeling from it.

Throughout the poem, the poet does not admit that before her present bitterness, she was happy and content with the emotion of love. It is almost as if she is against the concept of love and does not fully believe in the existence of love in its purest and deepest form.