Love Is Not All, or Is It? Essay

Edna St. Vincent Millay, venerate is non AllLove is non all it is not meat nor drinkNor slumber nor a roof against the rainNor yet a floating spar to men that sinkAnd rise and sink and rise and sink again5Love back tooth not fill thickened lung with breath,Nor clean the blood, nor forwardness the fractured boneYet many a man is making friends with deathEven as I speak, for need of revel aloneIt head may be that in a difficult hour,10 Pinned down by pain and moaning for release,Or nagged by lack past re resolves power,I might be driven to sell your love for peace,Or great deal the computer storage of this night for foodIt well may be I do not think I would.Part I Paraphrase the Poem.Love isnt everything, its not food, beverages, ease and it sure wont act as a roof against the rain. Love cannot offer a sinking man in peril a life- miserliness floating spar. As he rises, he sinks, only to rise and sink again. Love cannot give the air we need to fill our thickened lung, it ca n not clean blood or heal broken bones. Yet for all the things love cant do, a man with aside love is a man making friends with death. The lack of love alone in a difficult hour will pin you down by pain, whine for release or harass you by the power of past resolutions. One might be driven to sell love for peace, trade their memories for a meal, just now never give up love even if it was to release horrible pains or to get food to live.Part II tire the Poem./ = stressed syllable = unstressed syllable = half-stressed syllable = significant pause / / / / / 1Love is not all it is not meat nor drinkA / / / / / 2Nor slumber nor a roof against the rainB / / / / / 3Nor yet a floating spar to men that sinkA / / / / / 4And rise and sink and rise and sink againB / / / / / 5Love can not fill thickened lung with breath,C / / / / / 6Nor clean the blood, nor set the fractured boneD / / / / / 7Yet many a man is making friends with deathC / / / / / 8Even as I speak, for lack of love aloneD / / / / / 9It well may be that in a difficult hour,E / / / / / 10Pinned down by pain and moaning for release,F / / / / / 11Or nagged by want past resolutions power,E / / / / / 12I might be driven to sell your love for peace,F / / / / / 13Or trade the memory of this night for foodG / / / / / 14It well may be I do not think I would. G* Line 1-6 are composed with iambic pentameters, which are ten syllables for each line in five iambic pairs. * Line 7 is mostly Iambic with thelast feet being Anapest. * Line 8 is the most complexe, the foot division are Iamb, Iamb, Trochee, Trochee, Anapest. * Line 9-11 are composed with Iambic pentameters as well, line 9 and 11 both have a significant pause at the end. * Line 12 has 4 feet of Iamb and one feet of Anapest directly in the middle. * Line 13 has 4 feet of Iamb ended with a feet of Anapest. * Line 14 is a Iambic pentamerter.The Rhyme s cheme is ABAB, CDCD, EFEF, GG.Part III Write a Short Essay.Love is not All, Or is It ?In Edna St. Vincent Millays sonnet Love is Not All, the speaker depicts that love isnt the most important thing in life, but you would do anything for it. In the first half, Millay declares that love is useless and unsubstantial to lifes requirement. The second half of the sonnet successfully outshines the previous half because although she has shown that love isnt needed to live, Millay makes it clear that life isnt worth living without it. Furthermore, love is not something that will help you physically however, it always goes back to the fact that its the most influential and overpowering thing over you.Millay elaborates on the aspect of love, love cant do everything, love cant save a life, nor be a shelter or a doctor. Each section of the sonnet reflects a human need food, shelter, health and emotion. Love cannot fill our stomach with meat (1) nor can it hydrate us, as illustrated by drink (1) . Also, love will not regenerate a worn out man from slumber (2) and sure wont offer shelter or a roof against the rain(2). Millay effectively shows that love is worthless on a physical level as love cant offer a man in peril a life saving floating spar (3), offer the precious air our lungs need to breathe, heal our body from illness nor clean the blood (6) or fix the broken bones.Millay writes I might be driven to sell your love for peace / Or trade the memory of this night for food (12-13), to produce a scenario in which she is coerce to aim between love and life. The imagery you imagine reading this sonnet is very concrete, even spine-tingling at times therefore, far from the sweet sentimental ones normally associated with love sonnets. Love, as described by Millay, seems almost as if its worth nothing.For all the things that love cannot do, the author insists that we still need love to live. Millay makes it unambiguous when she writes Yet many a man is making friends with dea th / Even as I speak, for lack of love alone (7-8), trying to give her referees the purpose of view that men can die without love. A lovelorn man is closer to death. Line eight really changes the direction of this sonnet because at first, Millays definition of love was worthless and now the reader notices that she starts restoring the significant importance of love.The next lines begin with It well may be (9), which introduces the reader to a supposed situation being Pinned down by pain and moaning for release / Or nagged by want past resolutions power (10-11). These two lines model how the reader portrays love because nothing is more important, then filling that hole in our heart when love is missing. At the end of the sonnet, Millay offers a plausible solution to fill her human needs as she might be driven to sell your love for peace (12) for it would release her from the horrible pains. She might trade the memory of this night for food (13) to feed her starving stomach. For a ll that love is, Millay reveals everything when she writes It well may be I do not think I would (14) importee that love is not all, but she would rather be dead than not have it.What exactly is love? It is the hardest emotion to control, one does not simply choose whom to love, it just happens. Loves not something you can see or touch, but you are well aware when love touches you. Love is not all, it doesnt answer to lifes requirements however, love is indispensable to meet those requirements and live peacefully. While reading Edna St. Vincent Millays sonnet Love is Not All the reader realizes that love is so powerful and rewarding. In an attempt to bring agreement between love and life, Millay chooses love because life is nothing without love.Work CitedEdna St. Vincent Millay, Love is Not All (456)