Analysis Of Edna St. Vincent Millay's Kin To Sorrow

While reading “Kin to Sorrow”, by Edna St. Vincent Millay, the many references towards “Marigolds”(7) and “rosemary”(8) suggest that the author aspires to over come the looming shadow of Sorrow. The personification of Sorrow as a person gives the image that the narrator is “accustomed”(5) to Sorrow and all that he brings along with him. Knocking on the door “neither loud nor soft”(4) Sorrow passes by the elegant flowers, as if mocking them, only to bring the narrator the painful and morose emotions that parade along with him. “Oh, Come in!”(16) says the Narrator to Sorrow in the last line of the poem; I felt a personal connection with this line because I believe that to kill one with kindness is the best way to act towards someone who is unhappy.