Collected Sonnets

by Edna St. Vincent Millay

Book Overview

More than 180 sonnets selected from Millay's books of poems -- including 20 sonnets from Mine the Harvest not contained in previous editions of her Collected Sonnets -- are brought together in this... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: B0006APIDI
• ISBN13: 8601422389388
• Release Date: January 1941
• Publisher: Harper & Brothers Publishers
• Length: 161 Pages
• Weight: 0.72 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Sonnets Galore

I needed the book Fatal Interview for a paper, so finding this volume of Millay's Collected Sonnets was a life saver. Plus, for those who love sonnets, here is one of the best sonnet collections since Shakespeare.

beautiful poetry

I've seen some collections of the "best" poetry and among others, Edna St. Vincent Millay's work is not featured. Perhaps her work is regarded as too "light weight" or perhaps structure and an ear for how a poem sounds is not as important as it once was - I don't know. But I recommend this book to help correct the lack of Edna St. Vincent Millay's poetry.I think that Edna St. Vincent Millay is one of the best poets ever, male or female, of any time period. So of course it would follow that I think this book is great, too.Treat your senses to her wonderful lyrics and you will see what I mean. The sonnet form is a strict one, one that few poets master yet M's Millay makes it work so wonderfully for her.There are love sonnets, of course - but there are just as many that have nothing to do with love. All of these sonnets are great, of course I have my favorites - read throught the book and you'll probably have your own picks, too.

Beautifully Crafted Work by a Major Poet

Millay was a master of prosody, and her gifts are on brilliant display in this collection of her sonnets. Form and diction that have sometimes been dismissed as out-moded or affected were tools that Millay was able to use deftly and in service of deeply felt and considered experience. Her work hasn't really been given its due yet, but why wait for the academy to catch up? This is wonderful, unforgettable work.

A great collection from America's greatest 20th-century poet

In this work of sonnets, selected for inclusion in this volume by Millay herself, the reader will find genius with heart and soul. Millay wrote many more kinds of poems than just sonnets, of course, but even when restricted to the old, old pattern of 14 lines and strict meter, she manages to convey profound and intimate thoughts on a wide variety of subjects: love, life, death, injustice, war, beauty, and the nature of humankind as a race of beings, to name a few. In this work one finds that some of the poems carry a dedication. There is a pair of sonnets written in memory of Sacco and Vanzetti who were executed in 1927; Millay records the tragedy of that injustice as she experienced it then, long before the more recent pronouncements of justice gone awry that we have heard during the past 25 years. Another sonnet of hers was read in the U.S. capitol in 1923 at the dedication of a statue of three feminist leaders who crusaded for equal rights. That same statue made the news in recent years, having been relegated to the Capitol basement on account of its weight and because of a proposal to hollow out its base so it can be replaced on the main floor. I was suprised -- and gratified -- to learn that Millay was part of its inauguration. Vincent, as her family and friends called her, held issues of justice close to her heart. Her greatest gift, I think, was the ability to write about intensely personal experiences and disclose them to the reader as common to everyone who is willing to look inward to the self. I've read other poets who have lived and worked since Millay's death in 1950 and I venture to say that we have not seen the like of her since. I wholeheartedly recommend her words to everyone because, having read them, I find myself more of a human being and more deeply committed to those things that really matter, given my ultimate mortality. --Todd Victor Leone