Edna St. Vincent Millay's Life and Prose
Edna St. Vincent Millay was a woman who did whatever she wanted. Her ideals did not match with her time, and she became a spearhead of the feminist writing movement of the 20th century.
Millay’s early life was full of writing, as her mother “provided [Millay and her sisters] with a steady diet of poetry, literature, and music.” Millay continued to write throughout her childhood, and after graduating from high school, she wrote her most famous poem, “Renascence.” In 1912, it was submitted to The Lyric Year contest, and while it didn’t win, it was still published in The Lyric Year anthology, where it grew in popularity. Many thought the poem should have won, and it even got Millay a full ride to Vassar.
Arthur Ficke stated that “it takes a brawny male of forty-five” to write such a poem like “Renascence”, and Millay, having a growing reputation of being quick-witted, responded, “I simply will not be a ‘brawny male’... I cling to my femininity!”
Millay and her work were subject to harsh criticism, most of which because of her gender. She often discussed the woman’s role in a relationship, most distinctly in her poem, “I, Being born a Woman and Distressed.” Poets like Ezra Pound, a man who considered himself a propagandist and met with Mussolini, and T.S. Eliot, a dedicated anti-semite and misogynist, were praised while Millay was torn down in the media. The constant double standard in writing was nothing new, especially in the 1920s, but Millay was targeted more than most, which came with being a massively popular poet.
John Crowe Ransom, a renowned poet, was one of the loudest critics of Millay. In his 1937 article, “The Poet As a Woman”, he describes Millay as a wonderful writer, but said that her downfall is her gender: “She therefore fascinates the male reviewer but at the same time horrifies him a little too.” This kind of criticism towards Millay’s character and writing was extremely common and has become a defining moment in her career, as she grew more and more outspoken with each sexist remark.
Millay was extremely weary of having a committed relationship, rejecting poets and “Vanity Fair” editors alike, as she feared that she would be “wasting her career in a life of domesticity.”
In 1923, she was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in poetry and decided to settle down. On her wedding day, she had to go to emergency surgery due to intestinal problems directly following the wedding. Before the surgery, she referenced her Pulitzer Prize, saying, “If I die now, at least I’ll be immortal.”
Then, a year later, the couple decided to move to Steepletop, where she wrote many of her well-known works, including a full-scale opera libretto that opened at the Metropolitan Opera House in 1927 called The King’s Henchman. Her husband, Eugen Boissevain, decided to quit his job to help support Millay with her writing. When asked about marriage, Boissevain said, “Vincent and I live like two men, bachelors, who choose their different jobs. [Yet] we study together. We play together, and it’s a race to keep up with her. It makes me in love with life.”
Edna St. Vincent Millay’s physical health was declining, and she relieved the pain with extremely addictive morphine doses. In 1940, she published a book of extremely patriotic poems named Make Bright the Arrows that alienated her supporters and her friends, who advised her not to publish. As the years went on, her mental state became worse from the deaths of family members and friends, but the worst shock was the death of her husband, Eugen, in 1949. While grieving the loss of her husband, Millay began to figure out a life without him, but sadly passed in 1950.
In 1954, her sister, Norma, decided to publish Mine the Harvest, a collection of Millay’s unpublished poems and excerpts from her journals. In 2022, Yale University Press published the majority of Edna St. Vincent Millay’s diaries in order to preserve her legacy.
Edna St. Vincent’s work and life were remarkable. As the literary canon progresses, it is crucial to remember her and the other women that changed the way feminism is expressed in literature, as her feminist stance and dedication to it has become something to aspire to even in the 21st century.
By Caroline Lackey