Analysis Of St. Vincent Millay s Love Is Not All (...

Part 1: Scansion and Analysis In Edna St. Vincent Millay’s â€Å"Love is Not All (Sonnet XXX),† the poem’s writer originally discredits the value of love, claiming that it is not essential because it does not support life; however, later Millay describes that love has some value. Love Is Not All is a Italian or Petrarchan sonnet, with fourteen lines of rhymed iambic pentameter. It has one stanza and it uses the rhyme scheme of a Shakespearean sonnet with three quatrains and a couplet. Each line contains between 7-10 words, the average line containing nine words. The poem includes the two main elements of a sonnet, an octave and sestet. The first six lines of the poem are the octave. During this section of the poem, the author has a negative tone towards love. Her diction includes words like â€Å"not† or â€Å"nor† to stress the idea that love is unnecessary. The switch or climax of the poem occurs during the seventh line, and is marked by the word â€Å"yet†. This choice of diction foreshadows the second idea of the poem, that love has some value. The eighth line starts the sestet of the poem and changes the tone of the poem to a more optimistic outlook. Douglas 2 Part 2: Explication Through the use of poetic devices such as repetition or alliteration, the author originally describes what love is not capable of providing and defines love as unnecessary but by the end of the poem, the author reveals that love has some value. The first four words of the poem are, â€Å"love is not all†.