Edna St. Vincent Millay's Poem Love Is Not All
Love is most definitely not all. The poet Edna St. Vincent Millay conveys that love is a limited concept in her poem; “ Love Is Not All”. Throughout the poem she expresses this by comparing and contrasting what love is and how it is not tangential, not tactile. Love is limited. In the poem love cannot affect the physical or corporeal world. The poet states this nature in lines one to six, “... It is not meat nor drink… nor a roof against the rain… love cannot fill the thickened lung with breath… nor set the fractured bone” Love cannot feed someone, it cannot provide shelter from the elements, and it cannot fix health problems. Because these are the most important aspects to our survival, love is ultimately pointless and limited. Even the
title shows that love is limited. The title, “Love Is Not All” shows how little love affects things or matters. If the author had chosen a title that was more representative of the benefits and widely encompassing nature of love, then the reader could understand that love is wonderous. However, she didn’t and because she explained all throughout the poem the limitations of love, the reader is lead to believe that the poet Edna St. Vincent Millay holds that love is limited.
title shows that love is limited. The title, “Love Is Not All” shows how little love affects things or matters. If the author had chosen a title that was more representative of the benefits and widely encompassing nature of love, then the reader could understand that love is wonderous. However, she didn’t and because she explained all throughout the poem the limitations of love, the reader is lead to believe that the poet Edna St. Vincent Millay holds that love is limited.