Love Is Not All Analysis

Edna St. Vincent Millay’s sonnet “Love Is Not All” describes truth and destroys the notion that, love brings enduring happiness by solving all problems. She aims to convince the reader to accept love with a bit of irrational logic. At the beginning of the poem, Millay's cynical thoughts eventually turn out to be dramatic highlighting her real intentions.
This sonnet structure has great elements that make it pleasant to read. It is made up of fourteen lines in English/Shakespearean style. It is further divided into four main parts, the first, second, and third Sicilian quatrain, and at the very end, a heroic couplet. Millay employs a Shakespearean sonnet rhyming scheme, abab cdcd efef gg. It also follows that an Italian thematic structure is observed on the first eight lines, highlighting the first section of the poem. In this section, the poet provides a negative definition of what love is, while the rest of the trailing six lines convey a new line of thought. At the eighth and ninth lines, an extra beat is added which also divides the eighth line sonnet into octave

Personification features when Pain, death and want are mentioned as if they are real three-dimensional objects. Love is personified in phrases like "life preserver," "floating spar," "basic needs." "Meat, drink, slumber, and roof" are personified to "breath, blood, and bone." The poem's uses informal English language followed by a sad tone and a depressing mood when Millay describes love as useless. Though there is a light side towards the end of the poem. Beginning with her opening verse “Love is not all,” gives the poem a negative appeal prompting the viewer to have a suspicious notion concerning the theme. The overall meaning is that love is not a requirement for our human survival. Many people who fall in love are constantly driven by factors to give up on love, of which some people give up and others do