Millay's "And You As Well Essay

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Rather than a poem reflecting her enjoyment of her lover, as would have been typical of an English sonnet, this poem is about the speaker reflecting on the fact that her lover will have to die. The opening octet seems to describe all of the features of the lover and how they will al fade away in death. The sestet puts a sudden shift in the poem, however, using lighter imagery though not taking a lighter tone, and possibly indicating that the speaker is lamenting their own death, and referring to their own body in the first half. The shift in a sonnet is called the volta, and is another standard feature of the sonnet (Baldick, 1990). Usually in an Italian sonnet, however, the octet presents a problem or question, and the sestet solves or answers it. In this poem, the sestet adds a complication to the problem set in the octet -- not only is the object of death in question (i.e.
speaker or lover), but the sestet also attests that love will not conquer death, either.

In this poem, Millay not only veers from the traditional use of the English sonnet, she does not even adhere to the conventions of the less traditional form she ahs chosen. Her poems are about someone who does not experience life in the usual way, but instead seems to be always seeing the inverse of what most people would see. Her use of form mirrors her meaning and feeling.

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