Millay Sonnett Analysis: Not in a Silver Casket
Analysis of Millay’s “Not in a silver casket cool with pearls”
Edna St. Vincent Millay’s unconventional childhood, growing up without a father because her mom kicked him out and having to learn independence and responsibility by the age of twelve, influenced her poetry and shaped her as an motivated and self-sufficient individual. By the time “Vincent”, as she liked to be called, was nineteen years old, she already had already made a name for herself as a formidable poet. A couple discovered her and sponsored her education at Vassar College where Vincent experimented with her sexuality. She openly expressed her bisexuality, and continued to have both male and female sexual partners. When she married Eugen Boissevain, the couple agreed to have an open marriage, and she continued to write lustful poetry in which it is unclear if the beloved addressed in her sonnets refer to men or women. In “Not in silver casket cool with pearls”, Edna expresses her love for a beloved who appears to be female; Vincent drops subtle hints in the sonnet alluding to the lover’s gender, and she employs sensory details and sound devices to establish a tone of confidence, security, and joy as she articulates the fact that her non-traditional ways of expressing her love are just as legitimate as the traditional ways she dismisses. In”Not in a silver casket cool with pearls”, Millay addresses her lover as “you” three times, indicating that although this is a reflective poem conveying her true emotions, it is not an internal monologue by any means. The gender of the beloved is never clarified, although there are details Millay felt compelled to include in a deliberate fashion in her sonnet which point to a feminine companion. Vincent writes to her partner that “one should bring [her partner] cowslips in a hat/ Swung from the hand” (line 11-12). Cowslips are yellow, fragrant, ornamental flowers. A woman would never bring flowers to a man under normal circumstances, so more likely than
Edna St. Vincent Millay’s unconventional childhood, growing up without a father because her mom kicked him out and having to learn independence and responsibility by the age of twelve, influenced her poetry and shaped her as an motivated and self-sufficient individual. By the time “Vincent”, as she liked to be called, was nineteen years old, she already had already made a name for herself as a formidable poet. A couple discovered her and sponsored her education at Vassar College where Vincent experimented with her sexuality. She openly expressed her bisexuality, and continued to have both male and female sexual partners. When she married Eugen Boissevain, the couple agreed to have an open marriage, and she continued to write lustful poetry in which it is unclear if the beloved addressed in her sonnets refer to men or women. In “Not in silver casket cool with pearls”, Edna expresses her love for a beloved who appears to be female; Vincent drops subtle hints in the sonnet alluding to the lover’s gender, and she employs sensory details and sound devices to establish a tone of confidence, security, and joy as she articulates the fact that her non-traditional ways of expressing her love are just as legitimate as the traditional ways she dismisses. In”Not in a silver casket cool with pearls”, Millay addresses her lover as “you” three times, indicating that although this is a reflective poem conveying her true emotions, it is not an internal monologue by any means. The gender of the beloved is never clarified, although there are details Millay felt compelled to include in a deliberate fashion in her sonnet which point to a feminine companion. Vincent writes to her partner that “one should bring [her partner] cowslips in a hat/ Swung from the hand” (line 11-12). Cowslips are yellow, fragrant, ornamental flowers. A woman would never bring flowers to a man under normal circumstances, so more likely than