Renascense and Other Poems (1917)

I'm not as fond of this early collection of Millay's poems as I am of some of her later work. Millay has a sentimentalist streak which I am not fond of. I like her better when she's being sassy and coy about her sex life. ( )

The only poem in here that I liked was "Afternoon on a Hill". I am, though, willing to admit that as my problem, not history's or literature's. I have no real taste for poetry and have had little training in it's appreciation. I therefore think that poets "do go on a lot". Perhaps that's why the succinctness of "Afternoon on a hill" painted a really good picture for me. ( )

What an awesome range of poetics and understanding. ( )

Meg gave me this as a DailyLit gift a couple weeks ago when I needed it, and she recommended "take one before bedtime" and I did. Well I tried. Practice is hard.Poetry, I don't know you very well, but it's pretty awesome when you work out. This collection starts with a couple of longer pieces, which I liked a lot, particularly "Interim".Here 'twas as if a weed-choked gateHad opened at my touch, and I had steppedInto some long-forgot, enchanted, strange,Sweet garden of a thousand years agoAnd suddenly thought, "I have been here before!" ( )

The title poem is simply awe-inspiring. Just a few simple pages in which Millay's sing-songy, non-challent rhythms and rhymes build into profound and overwhelming images. ( )