BY EDNA ST. VINCENT MILLAY. EN101: Writing for the Humanities

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Title
In the short poem “What lips my lips have kissed, and where, and why”, the author is reminded by the many loves that have passed by her life. The author of this poem is Edna St. Vincent Millay. Although this poem talks about love, the themes of “What lips my lips have kissed, and where, and why” also focus on transience, change, and loss, depicted through setting the mood, structure, and the use of powerful literary devices. This paper aims to analyze the poem by Edna St. Vincent Millay, to have a deeper understanding of the principles and ideas that are applicable from the details given in the poetry.
Summary
The poem “What lips my lips have kissed, and where, and why”, also known as Sonnet 43, is about the author/speaker wondering about the people that she had been involved with. This is evident in the title, as well as the first line, where there is an effort in trying to recall what lips she had kissed, and where she had kissed her lovers and the reason behind as to why she did. There is also a declaration that the author had already forgotten these minute details that are evidence of the love that she had shared with her past lovers. There is also a sharing of experience that she had lain on the arm of past lovers until morning came, but without remembrance of the specific person or people, she had shared this experience with. The author also mentions being occasions of being bothered by ghosts in the night waiting for a reply. These ghosts from the past were already forgotten men that will not again be associated with the author in the middle of the night and this thought causes her heartache that she had described as a stirring quiet pain. The loneliness that the author felt is further emphasized by her comparison of herself to a lonely tree during winter that is unaware of the birds that have left her branches one by one. But even without noticing how the birds have disappeared one by one, the tree or the author is aware that the branches that the birds have left are now quieter than before. Again, the inability to recall each lover that has passed by the author's life was mentioned. The poem ends with the author acknowledging that “summer sang in me a little while, that in me sings no more” (Cambridge).
Interpretation
In the way the words were weaved into a poem, it possessed the themes namely, love, transience, change, and loss. The different emotions and thoughts were described in the poem resembling some kind of mourning for the transience of love, changes that have occurred, and the loss of the author’s memory of these past love and lovers. Although there was loneliness mentioned and it was truly evident in the poem, there was no bitterness that can be felt but more on the acceptance of what has happened to these loves with the change of season and the amount of time that had already passed. Love was talked about as something transient and impermanent, emphasizing the reality of love, including the emotions, experiences, and memories that it brings. In addition to these concepts of love, love was also described in moments such as the act of kissing, and the simplicity of laying beside ...